No more beans. Thank GAWD! Look, beans are...well...okay. I don't dislike them at all. But when it comes to the food world, beans are Hyundais. Yes, they're dependable, but they are also lacking in flash. "More substance than style" one might say...if one were prone to cliches.

So I'm moving on. I want to talk about Walnuts, a food so flashy, so high end, that their very name indicates it's place in the world. Juglans regia is a Latin contraction of Jovis glans meaning regal nut of Jupiter ("Jupiter's nuts") or nut of "the Gods". When you have Gods eating you, you know you've hit the big time.

Walnuts were thrown to Roman wedding guests by the groom to bring good health. Unless a walnut hit one in the eye or throat, in which case it was fairly safe to say that the nut was thrown by the groom out of sheer sadism.

Their are 21 species of walnuts, but generally speaking, there are only two that you have to think about when it comes to walnuts:

• Juglans regia L. - Persian Walnut, Common Walnut
• Juglans nigra L. - Black Walnut

The Persian walnut is the one we are all used to. Why? Because the other 20 genuses of walnuts have very thick shells, making the amount of effort required to get the meat of the nut more than the reward of the nut itself.

The exception that proves the rule surrounds the black walnut. Yes its difficult to get the meat of a black walnut. But the taste of the black walnut is exceptional, making a favorite of chefs and bakers everywhere. And that's where I come in.

I could make several kinds of dishes with walnuts. But really, do you want a recipe for a salad with walnuts, or would you rather have a recipe for banana-walnut cake recipe?

I think the answer it fairly clear.

This recipe makes a great side dish, especially if the main course is along the lines of carne asada.

This recipe also proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that pork goes well with beans...ahh..ummm.. Okay, that's hardly breaking news. It sounded more profound in my head than it did on the computer screen.

Heed my warning tho...this is a hot dish. It goes remarkably well with beer as a beverage choice. Okay, not so much of a warning as it is a tasty recommendation.

• 2 tablespoons of shortening (or lard if it's on hand)
• 1 white onion, sliced
• 1 Tablespoon salt
• 8 oz. ground chorizo
• 7 oz chipotle peppers
• 4 cups black beans (2 14 oz. cans)
• 1 Tablespoon corn meal
• grated jack cheese (to top)

If your peppers are dried out, rehydrate them in water for 30 minutes.

Melt the shortening in a skillet (preferably a cast iron skillet if you have one handy). Add the onions and fry until nearly translucent. Salt.

Add the chorizo, and fry until brown. Add the peppers and beans, and mix in the corn meal to thicken the sauce. Simmer over medium heat fro 10 minutes, stirring regularly.

Serve with grated cheese and chopped scallions

Serves 6

Do you think you can out cook Booby Bobby Flay?

Do you believe yourself to be more of a personality than Emeril?

Do you wish to be on a PBS reality show?

If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then get yourself down to the Art Institute of Seattle on Feb. 4, between 11 a.m. to 6 p.m

"Why", you ask? Because that's when they are hoding auditions for the new reality show "Cooking Under Fire"

From the press release:

You can audition to be one of 12 contestants competing for a kitchen position in one of celebrity chef Todd English's restaurants in New York City. The series, which premieres April 27 on PBS, will be hosted by English and chef Ming Tsai.

If you think you've got the chops to cook in New York city, under the tutelage of one the premier chefs in the nation, then give the audition a shot.

Me? I'll stick to cooking at home thank you very much. I'll be watching y'all with an amaretto sour in one hand and a remote control in the other.

There's a big misconception here in the States, that gnocchi is a potato dish. This would be a fairly big surprise to the folks who made gnocchi before the new world was colonized.

Truth is, Gnocchi has more in common with polenta than pasta, at least when it comes to its genealogy. A recipe that contains a fine grain mixed with a liquid and other ingredients? That's the basis of gnocchi.

Sure, sure, when potatoes finally made their way to Italy, potato flour took over. But the Romans said "No thanks. We got a good thing going on already" Looking at the recipe below, they do.

No pictures, as my camera went "kerflooey". And if you've ever had a camera go "kerflooey", you know how painful it can be.

• 3 cups milk
• 6 Tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup semolina flour
• 1 cup freshly grated Pecorino
• 4 egg yolks

Pre-heat your over to 425 F.

Using a sauce pan, heat the milk over medium heat until it start to scald. Add the butter and salt and whisk until the butter has melted. Slowly pour in the semolina flour into the heated milk. Whisk vigorously allowing it to thicken. Continue cooking over heat for one to two minutes, whisking all the way. Remove from heat and add 1/2 cup of the grated cheese and the eggs yolks. Mix well.

Pour the batter onto a buttered cookie sheet and spread about, ensuring it's an even thickness. Allow to cool for about 30 minutes or so.

Cut the semolina into crescent moons,roughly 2-3 inches in length. Place into a buttered baking dish, leaning each piece of gnocchi slightly upon each other. Sprinkle with remaining grated cheese and bake in oven for 15-20 minutes, until grated cheese is a light golden brown.

Remove from oven and serve immediately.

Serves 4

Even tho' my e-mail address is absent from the blog template that I use, people have been crafty enough to scour the site and track me down. Every once in a while I get a note asking me a specific question, some of which I actually require me to sit down, consider, and answer.

The following is one of those questions.

Hi Kate!

I love your site. I find you entertaining yet informative. I was hoping you could answer a question for me.

What is Garum Sauce? I saw that you wrote a little about it but I never heard of it before.

Stephanie
xxxxx@hotmail.com

Hi Stephanie...thanks for kind words. I did indeed write briefly about Garum Sauce in my post about Lazio last week.

Garum is a sauce that was quite popular in Rome. But as with most thing Roman, they actually took the recipe from the Greeks.

Garum is, at its core, a fish sauce. To make it, you'd take some Mackerel, slice it open and pour its blood and intestines into the bottom of a container. Mash the meat and bones of the remaining fish and place on top of the intestines. Layer two fingers of salt and herbs (most likely a combination of dill, coriander, fennel, celery, mint, or oregano). Repeat layering process until container is full.

Cover and place in the sun for 7 days. Although the fish will liquify, it will not putrify. Instead, it will go through a process called Enzymic proteolysis, sort of a fermentation with meat and fish guts. It is at this point that you would want to strain off the residual liquid and bottle.

As you can imagine, this process stunk up the place to high heaven. So much so that they banned garum making in urban areas of the Roman Empire.

If you're looking to taste Garum, it's not widely made anymore. Supposedly, you can pick up a bottle of Vietnamese nuos nam or Thai nam pla fish sauce and get a similar tase, although I am led to believe that they use fish meat only and not the blood or guts of a fish.

If you have any question that needs answered, I have no fear of doing the research on any food topic you may have. Contact me at Kate AT accidentalhedonist DOT com.

Ugh.

Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh.

That's all I can say in regard to the wine I chose for this round of Wine Blogging Wednesday. I walked into Larry's, up to the person in charge of wine, and asked "Which wine name makes you giggle?"

Her response?

A bottle of 2003 Wolftrap.

I can hear you now...."Huh? WolfTrap? How is that name wacky?"

Well, you see. Wolftrap is a South African wine. And it's name comes from the fact that when the Dutch moved into the area back during their colonial phase, they brought a fair amount of wolf traps in order to protect themselves. There was only one problem with this:

There are no wolves in South Africa.

So you have a wine so named because it pokes fun at the Dutch. Ha Ha.. ha...ha...

Ha...

*sigh*

Okay, it's kinda lame. To add inury to (Dutch) insults, the wine is fairly horrible. I should have noticed that right off the bat when no varietal is mention on the wine label. Although I was able to find out that the 2003 WolfTrap is a detailed blend of 7.1% Syrah, 11.78% Ruby Cabernet, 12.4% Pinotage, 45.33% Cinsault, 9.39% Grenache and 13.99% Cabernet Sauvignon. Which equals 100% liquid bile. Those who claim that this wine 'is powerfully aromatic with soft, jammy, lush, and spicy redcurrant aromas and an edge of smoky bacon' obviously got a batch that I did not. The after taste of this wine was as bitter as Condoleezza Rice's attitude towards Senator Barbara Boxer. It tastes both watered down, and the tannins are overwhelming.

Foods to eat with this wine? Twinkies...three day old pizza...road kill.

What a horrible wine.

Ugh.

I'd like to say that the fact that Kraft Foods has had a 28% loss in quartely profits is the result of my personal vendetta against their "food" line, but they're simply going through restructuring.

Still, if we could get their Velveeta and Parmesan cheese off the streets, I'd be one happy gal.

Alice of margaritas and mad hatters went off to the Elliot Bay Book Company on Sunday in order to see Alton Brown (of Good Eats Fame). He's been on a national tour to tout his new book I'm Just Here for More Food. If you've never been part of a book tour, especially Cook Book book Tours, there's a book signing which gives you a chance to ask a question or two.

Alice took advantage of that:

I asked him if he was going to have time this year to update his weblog more often.

His response?

He said that the weblog had seemed like a good idea, but once it got started, he realized, what more could he really say in it, and does the Internet really need another food weblog anyway? There are so many food blogs out there, just going blah blah blah.

Okay, I admit I'm going to get a bit defensive here, but truth be told, Alton's weblog was never really a food blog per se. I would say that it was more of celebrity blog of a person who has Television show about food.

The "blah blah blah" comment? I actually agree with him on that point. There are some pretty horrid food blogs out there, just as there are some pretty horrid political blogs, personal blogs, movie blogs, etc, etc. Conversely, there are a fair amount of wonderful food blogs out there. As with any medium, quality can be judged almost on a bell curve. The amount of exceptional usually equals the amount of horrid, with everyone else sort of falling in between.

However, I think Alton misses the point just exactly what food blogs can do. You can give links on the current news of food industry. You can write essays about how food affected your life. You can create a repository of recipes for others to refer to in the future. Alton's site rarely, if ever, did any of those.

Is all of this "blah, blah, blah"? *shrug*. I don't think so. I do know that I'll miss Alton's voice in the blog-universe, whether or not his site is a food blog or not.

Saltimbocca means to "jump in the mouth" in Italian, alluding the the fact that this dish leaps into your mouth because it's so good.

Now don't get me wrong, this dish is good...very good. But if any food jumps in my mouth without help from me, I'm calling an exorcist.

This Roman dish is extremely simple to create. It took me less than 30 minutes from pulling the meat from the fridge to slicing the Saltimbocca with a knife.

• 5 oz. Prosciutto, thinly sliced (Is there any other way, really?)
• 1 lb veal, sliced thinly as well
• sage leaves
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 4 Tablespoons Butter
• 2 Cups Flour
• Salt and Ground Pepper (to Taste)
• 2/3 cup Marsala

Lay out the slices of veal. Place slices of prosciutto on the veal, and top with 1-2 fresh leaves of Sage. Roll up like measuring tape and fasten with toothpicks.

In a large skillet, heat olive oil and 2 Tablespoons of butter over medium heat.

In mixing bowl, add flour, salt and pepper. Dredge the veal in the flour mixture, coating as much as possible. Tap off any excess flour and place in skillet after butter is done foaming. Brown veal on all sides, ensuring that the meat has developed a bit of a golden/rust crust. Set in a baking dish and cover with aluminum foil to retain its heat.

Add the Marsala to the skillet, and scrape the bottom of the pan to mix with the fronds. Melt the rest of the butter, piece by piece with the Marsala. Allow the wine to reduce (for about a minute or so).

Plate the saltimbocca and drizzle the Marsala gravy on top. Serve.

Serves 4

I haven't yet written about Beans in the 'educational' sense. With the recent Is My Blog Burning featuring the legume, I'd figured now would be the best time to provide context on what makes a bean a bean.

The first thing one has to realize when it comes to beans is that they come in two basic camps...old world beans and new world beans. Bean originally meant the seed of the fava bean (old world), but was later broadened to include members of the genus Phaseolus (new world) such as the common bean or haricot and the runner bean and the related genus Vigna. This would include soybeans, peas and lentils, but for the sake of this post, we'll discuss those legumes in later posts (or in the case of lentils, we'll simply refer to a previous post...'cause we're cool like that).

Fava Beans are old world. I think that's pretty clear. If you're eating horse beans, broad beans, or field beans, these to are also Fava Beans. So much for variety in European Beans.

But here's the big secret when it comes to beans...pinto, kidney, navy, black turtle bean, snap beans, French, green, wax (yellow pods), pole and runner (climbing) beans??? All the same type of bean.

I bet you didn't see that one coming did you?

It's true.. they're all Phaseolus vulgaris. They're simply harvested at different times and dried or canned at seperate times during their development. It is also true that these beans exist in many forms and colors. They are grown as dry beans or as green beans.

Then there's the good ol' Lima bean...also known as Phaseolus lunatus. Now I could talk about other beans out there, but this one holds a special place in my heart. Why? Because it's the oldest domesticated plant found in the western Hemisphere. It's suggested that it was developed in what is now Guatemala, and if we're to believe that from domesticated food comes civilization, then the lima bean is responsible for the birth of societies in the Western Hemisphere...way back around 7000 BC.

So yeah, lima beans may be the bane of youths world wide. Yes, it make taste horrible when cooked from the Frozen Green Giant packages. But it helped create entire cultures.

It still won't help me get over my aversion to them tho'.

More awards and more Kudos!

If you haven't already heard, the nominees for the 2005 Bloggies have been announced. For food, some of the sites celebrated here are now up for an award for "Best Food Blog".

Many Congratulations to Simply Recipes, The Food Section,101 Cookbooks, Cooking for Engineers , and Seattle's own Tasting Menu.

All of the sites above are daily reads for me, and I'm glad to see they're getting the attention they deserve!

UPDATE: D'oh! I forgot that these food blogs were also nominated in the following categories:

Chocolate and Zucchini - Best European Weblog.

Noodle Pie - Best Asian Weblog.

Spiceblog - Best Australian or New Zealand Weblog.

Is My Blog Burning? - Best Meme.

Again, congratulations to all of you guys! You represent Food Blogs very well!

Talk about coincidence. This months topic for Is My Blog Burning happens to be beans, hosted by Cathy of My Little Kitchen...which also happens to be the ingredient I'm researching at the moment (for those new to my site, I generally focus on one ingredient for a series of recipes...I also, seperately, focus on a cuisine as well, but I digress).

So yes, this fit into my plans nicely, but the problem was finding a recipe that could be interesting enough to publish. Let's face it, beans aren't one of the more exciting foods out there.

To combat that, I decided to head to Mexico in order to find a recipe that interests me enough. I found it in one based off of a Rick Bayless recipe, found in his book Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen. Called Motul-Style Eggs with Roasted Tomatoes and Black Beans, you can find this recipe throghout the Yucatan Peninsula.

Sauce:

• 4 large tomatoes
• 1/4 cup corn oil
• 1 white onion, sliced
• 2 habenero peppers, sliced in half
• 3/4 teaspoon salt

The Rest:

• 6 corn tortillas
• 2 cups black beans
• 6 oz. ham, sliced into strips
• 1 1/3 cup of frozen peas
• 1/2 cup crumbled queso fresco (feta cheese or other salted farmers cheese can do in a pinch
• 6 eggs

Heat your broiler to 500 degrees. Roast the tomatoes on a baking sheet 4 inches from the broiler. Allow the tomatoes to become blistered and blackened, turning over once while cooking. This should take about 12 minutes, 6 minutes for each side of the tomato.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Peel the tomatoes and place in a blender. Puree.

In a medium sauce pan, heat the vegetable oil over a medium-high heat. Add the onions. Cook until a golden brown and slightly darkened on some of the onion slices. Add tomatoes and habaneros. Lower heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes. Season with the salt and remove the peppers...I can't emphasize how important it is to remove the peppers.

Keep sauce over low heat as you cook the rest of the meal.

Using a large skillet, heat up 1/2 cup of corn oil. Fry tortillas until crisp an you have what is essentially a tostada. Drain on paper towels and set aside.

In a small pan, warm the black beans over low heat. In a seperate pan, heat up strips of ham until browned. Add the peas and cook.

Using the large skillet that you used for the tostadas, fry your eggs. Cook the eggs long enough to solidify the whites, but the yolks remain somewhat runny.

Place the tostada on a plate and spoon a bit of beans on to the corn tortilla. Top with an egg, ensuring the yolks do not run. Drizzle the top of the eggs with the tomato-habanero sauce. Sprinkly the plate with ham, peas and cheese. Serve immediately.

Serves 6

Ahhh...now we're getting into those Italian dishes that have been mislabeled by we Americans. Consider...Fettuccine alla Romana.

What is fettuccine alla romana? Is it fettuccine with butter, cream and parmesan cheese?

Nope. That's sort of an Alfredo sauce.

Is it cream, cheese, peas and prosciutto? Alas, even Craig Claiborne got that one wrong. Fettuccine alla Romana does not have cream.

According to Waverly Root, true fettuccine alla romana is fettuccine with a tomato sauce combined with chicken giblets (heart, liver and gizzard of the bird). This would explain why Americans haven't embraced the dish, as we're typically not a big "giblet" country. You can include me in with that group. But I figured "what the hell".

Truth? It's not bad, even if one isn't big on chicken livers. The prosciutto add enough of a flavor to create a new taste, so the giblets don't have to stand on their own. The rest is your typical tomato sauce. If you're wanting to try something a bit different on pasa, this would be a good place to start.

• 1 oz. Dried Porcini
• 1 Tablespoon Butter
• 1/2 lb. chicken giblets (or you can use strictly chicken livers if you desire)
• 1/4 lb. prosciutto, diced
• 2/3 cup Marsala Wine
• 4 Tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, chopped
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 can (28 oz) of diced tomatoes (if you have fresh tomatoes - 4 cups of diced)
• 1 lb. fettucine
• Grated pecorino or parmesan cheese (to top)

Add dried mushrooms to 1/2 cup of water. Allow to re-hydrate. Set aside.

In a skillet, melt 1 Tablespoon of butter over medium heat. Add giblets and brown to the point where a light brown crust develops on the edge of the meat. At that point add the prosciutto. Heat for 2-3 minutes. Add the Marsala wine and allow to reduce by 1/2. Lower to a simmer and set aside.

In a sauce pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and garlic and saute. While waiting for the onions to turn translucent, take the rehydrated mushrooms and cut into large pieces. Add to the onions and cook together for about a minute. Add the tomatoes and lower the heat to medium low. Cook for 15-20 minutes.

Cook the fettucine according to the directions on the box (normally, bring the water to a boil...add pasta and cook for 12-15 minutes).

Add cook giblets to the tomato sauce and combine.

When pasta is complete, place in heated pasta bowl. Add half of the sauce and toss. Plate and top with a spoonful or two of remaining sauce. Top with cheese and serve.

Serves 4-6

In my travels of Food Blogs (via RSS feeds...a lifesaver when reading hundreds of posts a day), there's been a few posts about the inauguration, and then a few posts from others complaining how Food Blogs should be free of political coverage. This situation also happened after the election.

As our community evolves, and as more readers find us (and they will, with the recent press we've been getting), it's important to realize a few things.

• Food Blogs are first and foremost...Blogs. That means a person can write about whatever they feel like. If they want to take write about their feelings about politics, it's entirely within their rights. There is no one standard way to write a food blog.
• Blogs are as much about the person writing the blog as it is the subject that they are writing about. If one wants to read about Food only , without the personality of the writer, there are plenty of mediums (magazine, cookbooks, web sites) that can fill that request.
• I can't speak for other Food Blog writers out there, but I know that I write for myself. I don't write what I think other would be interested it, nor do I write necessarily to get more readers to my site. Is it in the back of my mind? Absolutely. If other Bloggers out there have the same state of mind, then I find it odd when some complain when a blogger doesn't write about what they want them to. That position seems contrary to what blogs are all about.

Now, having said all that, I do find it very humorous that a few sites (I'm not naming any names here) fell for the very-much-most-likely-fake inaugural menu containing dishes such as:

• "Pilgrim's Pride" Turkey brined in Coca-Cola, stuffed with Sweet and Savory Dunkin Donuts "Old Fashioned Cake Donut" Stuffing (Inspired by Pioneer Lonnie Pilgrim, Chair, Pilgrims Pride Corp., Ranger Barclay T. Resler, Vice President Government Relations Coca-Cola and Dunkin Donuts).
• A trio of "Safeway Greens" (selected by Steven A. Burd, Pioneer and President, Chair and CEO of Safeway Inc.)
• Krispey Kreme Donuts Glazed with Nestle "NesQuik" Hot Fudge Sauce, Ashers Chocolate Mini-Pretzels.

As satire, the "menu" is a work of art. Littered with references to Corporate Donors as well as being a nod at white-trash attempts at haute cuisine, the "menu" succeeds because it's just believable enough without going over the edge. It works because we believe Bush to be beholden to Corporate America and a bit of a hick.

In reality, the lunch menu consisted of Scalloped Crab and Lobster,Roasted Missouri Quail, Chestnuts and other fine foods. A quick check of Google News verified all of the above.

Regardless, the next four years are going to be rough, at least for some of us in food land.

The Seattle PI gave a negative review to a local restaurant (Villa Cosenza, for those who want to know).

When the PI pans your restaurant, you know you have problems.

Josh at The Food Section points us to a list of new Food Network shows, including one called "What would Jesus Eat?". The fine folks over at eGullet have been wondering about what the show might offer.

I can tell you right now what to expect, if the show is based off the book that popped up in 2002: Nothing substantial.

The book, written by Dr. Don Colbert has been sold as "A cookbook inspired by Christ's diet..." Dr. Colbert himself has said ""I thought I'd go back to the training manual -- the Bible -- and see what Jesus ate. Lo and behold, Jesus ate the healthiest diet ever developed, the Mediterranean diet."

Which would be a wonderful place to start if it weren't for a few pesky facts:
1) The New Testament apparently doesn't talk about what Jesus ate all that much.
2) The Mediterranean Diet is based off of folks who lived a far different lifestyle than the rest of us.
3) In Biblical Times, the average life expectancy was roughly 30-40 years of age.

These facts make his choice of Jesus' diet as questionable.

Then there's the Old Testament vs. New Testament debate.When Dr. Colbert applies the theory that Jesus would have followed the Old Testament dietary restrictions (which seems plausible enough of a theory), the new Testament contradicts this in Mark 7:14-19:

14 Again Jesus called the crowd to him and said, “Listen to me, everyone, and understand this. 15 Nothing outside a man can make him ‘unclean’ by going into him. Rather, it is what comes out of a man that makes him ‘unclean.’ ”

17 After he had left the crowd and entered the house, his disciples asked him about this parable. 18 “Are you so dull?” he asked. “Don't you see that nothing that enters a man from the outside can make him ‘unclean’? 19 For it doesn't go into his heart but into his stomach, and then out of his body.” (In saying this, Jesus declared all foods “clean.”)

To top it off, his recipes include ingredients like lemons, avacodos, tomatoes; items not known in the Middle East during the time when it's said that Jesus lived. Even though it's possible that Jesus ate falafel, it's impossible that he ate salsa. This makes Dr. Colbert's work seem shallow and exploitive.

The food experts at Food TV should know this, and this is what makes the show seem equally shallow and exploitive, if not more so.

In Dr. Colbert's defense, if you remove the religious apect of his diet, he gives decent (if not common sense) advice. From his introduction:

• Eliminate all processed foods from your cupboards, and start over. Begin to buy whole-grain products and fresh fruits and vegetables. Stock your shelves with olive oil, nuts, seeds, and whole grain.
• Cook and bake with whole-grain products. Eat more fresh fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes, and nuts.
• Substitute olive oil for butter, margarine, salad dressings, and other oils.
• Avoid all fried or deep-fried foods.
• Limit cheese intake to Parmesan or feta cheese (used on main dishes or salads). Do not eat blocks of cheese.
• Eat yogurt with fruit, or sweeten it with Stevia (a natural substitute for sugar with no harmful side effects).
• Choose fish and poultry over red meat, and eat meat sparingly. Cut out sugar sweets.
• Enjoy a glass of red wine with lunch or dinner.
• Exercise regularly - walk more.
• Make dining an experience that you enjoy with others. Slow down your eating, savor your food, and enjoy sharing life with family and friends.

The problem is, these words of advice are hardly revolutionary. This further makes his book look as if he's using religion as a marketing tool...

...and The Food Network has bought into this hook, line and sinker.

I am still on this bean kick, although I have moved from the old world beans (fava) to the new world beans (almost every other kind of bean save soy). This means I can finally get to use black beans and kidney beans in the recipes of choice.

The first thing that came to my lower-middle-class-background mind when thinking of beans was chili.

That sound you just heard was that of Texans shuddering in disgust.

You see, according to Texans, 'authentic' chili isn't made with beans...or tomatoes or onions. If you put beans in your chili, not only are you not Texan, your darn near that of being a heathen. I hope you can sleep with that on your conscious. I know I can. Since I discoved several recipes claiming to be 'authentic' chili, it's hard for me to feel too guilty about blaspheming a culinary tradition. But rather than pissing off any more texans, I figured it's best to continue the tradition of calling this "Yankee Chili". The last thing we want is more pissed off Texans. The last Texan we pissed off ended up invading Iraq.

Yankee chili is really more of a stew than that of a chili. This generally means you can get away with putting almost anything into it. If it's spicy, has a tomato base and has some sort of protein source (meat or bean) you're good to go. You can use chicken, shrimp, or other seafood products in your chili, but I wouldn't brag about it. Others may say it's not 'authentic' enough.

Adapt this recipe any way you see fit.

• 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 2 large yellow onions, diced
• 3 jalepeno peppers, sliced
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 lb. ground Chorizo
• 1/2 lb. beef stew meat, diced into 1 inch pieces
• 1 28 oz can of crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1 bottle mexican beer of your choice
• 1 14 oz can of kidney beans, rinsed
• 1 14 oz can of black beans, rinsed
• 2 teaspoons cumin
• 1 Tablespoon Cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons ground pepper
• 1 Tablespoon Salt
• 2 Tablespoons ground corn meal

Heat the olive oil in the stock pot. Saute the onions and jalepeno peppers until onions are nearly translucent. Add the garlic, chorizo and diced beef. Allow beef to brown in pan (approx . 10 minutes).

Add the tomotoes, beef stock and beer to the pot. Bring to a boil and add beans and spices. Boil for 5 minutes. Then reduce the heat to medium low, bringing the chili down to a simmer (185 degrees F). Mix in Corn meal and simmer uncovered for 2 hours.

On a 1-5 scale of spiciness, this chili ends up a 3 to 3 1/2.

serves 8

Okay, this has taken on a life of it's own, and I think I'll see it to its conclusion.

We're still talking about Open Source Beer . After getting a post from a brewer which claimed that the recipe uses a lot of sugar. So much so, that any beverage that comes from it may not, in fact be beer. It may be alcoholic, but certainly not beer. I came to the conclusion that the Open Source Beer recipe was simply a marketing ploy.

Then Thorarinn Stefansson posted the following:

Being one of the students who published the recipe (and actually the one who wrote the english texts of the site) I'd like to point out that the "iffy beer recipe" whas produced in collaboration with a food scientist with over 20 years of experience in home brewing and who has published a book on the subject :)

The question wheiter or not a beer with added sugar for fermentation is a "real beer" is almost a religious issue to some, but it should be mentioned that the added sugar is only about 1/4 of the fermentable sugars.

Since I've also tasted the beer I can confirm that it in no way tastes like american style beers" (don't forget that the guarana beans add a lot to the bitterness of the hops). It's a real European with flavour and great color.

I'd also like to point out that on purpose the recipe is kept short, as the aim of the site isn't to teach home brewing. But then I can't see how the part of the recipe that says "[the wort] is then filtered and cooled in a sealed container" - is
"only inviting bacterial infection".

Of course you have to use common sense when cooling, but I can't see how, for instance in our brewing, cooling the wort in a sterilized sealed metal container in a cold storage room for 24 hours invites bacteria infection?

And Owen, please read the recipe again - the wort is boiled for 1.5 hours.

I don't want to sound to negative (after all, beer is ment to be fun) - but I wanted
to explain a bit of our side.

Marketing ploy? Well, remember that this is a school project. The basic idea was to see how far the "open source" concept could be applied to something as old-fashioned as beer recipe. But I can confirm that the idea has gotten a lot of attention and publicity - although we of course have nothing to gain financially from it all.

(But we do hope to get a decent grade for the project :)

Cheers!

Well, I'm willing to take his word for it that it's not a marketing ploy. But I'm not willing to say conclusively that the recipe will end up in a "beer" or not. The only evidence I will be willing to accept is the end result of the recipe. What that means is...Someone needs to make the brew.

Any takers? More importantly, anyone willing to send me a sample once the brew is complete?

In my continuing search to understand what exactly makes up Italian food, I've come to the region of Lazio. We'll, not so much as "come to" as "read as much as I could get my grubby little hands upon".

This is the second region of Italy that I've researched, and I've already understood a few things about Italian cuisine. Yes, yes, a lot of it is peasant food (a fact that can be attributed to many cuisines). But more amazing to me is how each region can have a clear difference in what they eat, even when the regions are smack up against each other. Case in point:

We discussed earlier that Tuscany is a beef region. The best known dish of Florence is Bistecca alla Fiorentina (Beef of Florence). Yet, 170 miles down the road in Rome, Romans take pride in their Porchetta (spit roasted pig), Abbacchio (roasted milk-fed lamb) and Saltimbocca (veal, sage, and prosciutto). For comparison, the distance between Florence and Rome is equivalent to the distance between Pittsburgh and Washington D.C. And we know how different their cuisines are, right (think keilbasa vs. Crab Cakes)?

Okay, perhaps that sort of proves my point. All regions have their specialties, and the one thing that I want to make clear: Italian food is not just different types of pasta with different kinds of tomato sauces. I think I can stop bringing that up, right?

When thinking about Italian food, remember their influences: Etruscan cuisine, Greek Cuisine, and to a lesser extent, Saracen Cuisine. Lazio (home of Rome) falls smack dab into the Etruscan category. I think there's no better proof of this than Gnocchi alla Romana. Unlike the Gnocchi that we americans have come to know and love, Gnocchi alla Romana is not made with potatoes. Rather it's key ingredient is semolina flour. Boiled in milk and mixed with Parmesan Cheese and beaten eggs, this recipe is a direct decendant of the polentas that the Etruscans made popular back in the day.

There are many ingredients, dishes and drinks that I want to explore while focusing on Lazio. Pecorino Cheese is certainly on the list, as are artichokes. I'm looking forward to drinking Sambuca while chomping on coffee beans.

But honestly? I'm keen on researching a fish sauce that may no longer be able to be reproduced. Garum was used in ancient Rome, and it was supposedly as ubiquitous then as ketchup is today. I'm thinking about making some, which will completely and thoroughly ruin any chances of me getting my security deposit back on my apartment.

Do I even attempt to broach the subject that some might consider 'beneath' a foodie? Do I dare speak the three words that strike fear into the hearts of parents across the country?

I do.

Those three words? "Girl Scout Cookies"

It is indeed that time of year again, when co-workers hit the rest of us with guilt trips in order to help their daughters earn a future-capitalist badge. E-mails will fly back and forth with desperate pleas for orders and calls for one last box of trefoils. This year, many young girls will have nightmares of "Did I sell enough boxes?"

Why? So we can all get our fix of Thin Mints.

Full disclosure here. I have never been (and suppose, never will be) a girl scout. I opted out when I realized that they didn't give badges for bon mots and sarcastic attitudes. However, my goodie-two-shoes sisters were girl scouts and I recall vividly the easter colored boxes stored in our pantry, waiting for our next visit to our grandparents who ordered far more cookies than most 70-year-olds eat in a given year.

The Green Army of Girls have been selling cookies since 1917, but the commercial boxes of cookies didn't arrive until 1934 when the greater Philadelphia Girl Scout council became the first regional council to sell commercially baked cookies. But even that wasn't the watershed year for Girl Scout Cookies.

No, the year I celebrate in regards to girl scout cookies is 1951 when Thin Mints were introduced.

Ah yes, thin mints...my old archnemesis. You are my Achilles heal. I have a severe love/hate relationship with you.

Let's be honest here for a moment. If it weren't for thin mints (and to a lesser extent Samoas...which, for the record, remind me nothing of the island nation that is its namesake), we wouldn't even be talking about girl scout cookies. We all know in our heart of hearts that these two cookies are the money makers for the Girl Scouts (1 out of every four boxes of Girl Scout Cookies sold are Thin Mints). The rest of their cookie catalog is barely Keebler elf quality.

But Thin Mints? Oh how I love thee. Especially after you've been kept in the freezer for a day or two. I don't care that your now $4 a box. If you were given as communion instead of whatever the hell they're passing off as teh body of Christ, I'd be a practicing Catholic.

What I don't love about you is the fact that there are close to 36+ cookies in a pack, and the suggested serving is only 4 cookies (at 140 calories per serving).

I'm not the only one who has issues with Girl Scout Cookies. A woman in Albuquerque was sued over $1400 for collection of these baked pieces of gold. The suit contends the woman “refused to pay” and characterizes her actions as “embezzlement of the cookies.”

$1400 comes to 350 boxes. I wonder how many of them were Thin Mints.

At any rate, track down a co-worker selling cookies for their daughters. They should be easy to spot, as they have the "I'm-helping-my-daughter-but-boy-do-I-wish-I-was-doing-somthing-else" look in their eye. Make their life easier by purchasing a box or two.

Ahhh...winter soup. Can you get any better than this? I mean, aside from righteously swillin' a fine glass of bordeaux on Les Champs-Elysées, arm in arm with a loved one, wearing little more than a smile.

Okay, so you can get a little better than a nice winter soup.

There are many ways to go with this soup. Add a bit more salt? That'll work. Top it with Creme Fraiche? That also will work. Chop up a little bit of Scallions? Perfectly okay. This is one of those soups that is very adaptable.

• 6 cups water
• 8 oz. fava beans, shelled.
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 2 celery sticks, thinly sliced
• 3 large potatoes, peeled and diced
• 2 tbsp. combined herbs (parsley, chives, rosemary), finely chopped
• 1 large bay leaf
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 tsp. allspice
• 3 cloves
• 2 tsp. salt
• 3 tsp. coarsely ground black pepper
• 2 cups smoked Gruyere, grated
• 1 cup half and half cream

Bring water to a boil in a stock pan. Add beans, onion, celery sticks, potatoes, garden herbs, bay leaf, garlic, allspice, cloves, salt and black pepper. Boil rapidly for 15 minutes.
The soup will look gray at this point. Do not panic. It's supposed to look this color.

Reduce heat and simmer (185 degrees F) for 1 hour and 45 minutes until smooth. Add gruyere and cream to the soup and stir well. Simmer for 15 minutes. Ladle into serving bowl and top with any remaining chopped herbs.

The end result? A nice bean soup, perfect for any cold day.

serves 6

Sometimes when inspiration hits, you create something that just tastes like ambrosia. Last night was one of those moments.

I've got loads of Fava Beans that I have to deal with, and yet limited time to make anything of substance. I had some bread, so I said "Hey...How about a spread of some sort?"

I then realized I was home alone, and speaking aloud one's inner dialogue is a sure sign of insanity. Well that and thinking that Kraft Parmesan cheese is anything more than sawdust with a hint of Parmesan.

At any rate, here's what I came up with. And please be sure you like onions.

• 2 cups of shelled Fava Beans
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 2 strips of pancetta (or bacon)
• 1/2 of a white onion, diced
• 1/2 cup of high quality olive oil

Boil water in a 4 qt sauce pan. Once water reaches a rolling boil, place all beans in pan and cook for 3-5 minutes. Drain Beans and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat a skillet to medium high heat. Scorch garlic cloves in skillet, remove and set aside. Add pancetta and cook to a crisp. Also remove and set aside.

Put beans, garlic, pancetta and onions in food processor and pulse until nearly pureed. Turn on processor and drizzle olive oil into bean paste until thoroughly incorporated. Place in a bowl and serve with your favorite bread.

Yeah, yeah. Ethics, schmethics. I didn't want anyone to know about my most recent find in Capital Hill. After bitching about Seattle's lack of decent pizza, I found a place a mere four blocks from my apartment that has kept me sated over the past two months.

It's kinda hidden, it has no sign out front and the pizza is exactly what I was looking for. The pizza dough is by far the best I've had since moving out here. The sauce is made on the premises, and they get a fair amount of their cured meats from Mario Batali's dad over at Salumi.

Now I thought about mentioning this place right here on this blog, but I thought to myself "No, not yet. I want to enjoy it's unblemished environs before it becomes too well known.

Then Sara Dickerman of The Stranger wrote about it, and for a moment or two, I was worried. Then I thought to myself "Bah, no one reads The Stranger for food reviews."

But now...now the secret is fully out. Penelope Corcoran of the Seattle PI did a write up of the place, and she gave it a glowing review. Yes, it was already starting to get busy. A group of friends celebrated this site's one year birthday there and we had to wait for a table (Of course there were nine of us, and getting nine people at a table in any restaurant on Capital Hill is problematic, especially on a Saturday night).

So here's my non-review review of the place. Via Tribunali has great neopolitan pizza. NOT New York style, or Chicago style, or Greek Style Pizza, but neopolitian. This generally means the less toppings on the pizza the better.

The Crust? The crust itself is worth killing a member of your family for a bite or two. After having the crust here, I walked the four blocks to Piecora's, and gave them a "Ha-Ha!" a la Nelson from The Simpsons.

So go and have fun. Enjoy their pizza. But don't go to often, as I still wish to get a table somewhat easily.

VIA TRIBUNALI

PHONE: 206-322-9234

ADDRESS: 913 E. Pike St.

After posting the article about Open Source Beer, Jennifer of Brewerburns left a comment that said:

I would be leery of any beer recipe that calls for 4 kg of sugar to be added.

Now I admit to a tremendous lack of knowledge when it comes to brewing beer. In an e-mail, I asked Jennifer to elaborate. This is her response:

well, my husband and I brew beer regularly. The adding of actual cane sugar to the wort (that's what the beer is called before it's fermented) is never a part of the process. The idea is that you are supposed to get all or almost all of your fermentable sugars from the mash: that's the part of the process where you steep the grains in hot water; or from using malt extract, which you can buy at your local homebrew store. Any recipe that calls for adding cane sugar in the actual brewing process is therefore suspect. The only time that you use sugar, other than malt extract, when you brew is to prime the beer immediately prior to bottling to stimulate the yeast so that it will properly bottle carbonate. And then you only use 3/4 of a cup of corn sugar for 5 gallons of beer. If your primary source of fermentable sugars is cane sugar then you're not really making beer. You're making
something that will probably ferment and produce alcohol but it's not beer. The primary characteristic of beer is, after all, a beverage produced by mashing grains to get fermentable sugars to make alcohol.

Another thing. I am not an all grain brewer. In other words, we buy malt extract instead of mashing grains to create enough fermentable sugars to brew a batch of beer with. That being said, the recipe that you posted only calls for a "one step" mash and then only calls for the grains to be heated to 55-60 C and held at that temperature for 1 to 2 hours. I suspect that the reason the recipe calls for a large amount of sugar in the wort is that this mash doesn't produce enough fermentable sugars to make beer. Most all grain recipes recommend using at least a two step, or even a three step mash. I have seen some recipes that use a one step mash though. I also suspect that 55-60 C isn't hot enough to really extract the fermentable sugars from the grains.

Additionally, if you were to transfer the wort (the liquid concoction you've
got on the stove) to a container and simply let it cool there before pitching the yeast (which could take up to eight hours if you actually put it in a sealed container) you are only inviting bacterial infection. In order to make good homebrew you need to cool the wort quickly after it's done "worting" on the stove . That is why they make wort chillers: basically a copper coil with fittings on both ends. You attach a hose to one fitting and the other end of the hose to your sink faucet and run cold water through the coils while they are submerged in the wort. This cools the wort in about 10-15 minutes, thereby minimizing the amount of time the wort has to catch a bacterial infection. Then you transfer the wort to a glass carboy,
preferably, although you can use a plastic bucket with a well fitting lid (this is a bad idea but some people do brew this way) and you pitch the yeast. There are other things to do after that but I think this adequately covers why that beer recipe is simply an invitation to disaster. So, if you really would like some good beer recipes I might recommend either: buying the Complete Joy of Homebrewing by Charlie Papazian or: you can go to forum.northernbrewer.com. It's a homebrewer's forum and there are lots of free recipes posted by people on the forum. Not all of the recipes are good but a lot of them are. Other places on the internet with free homebrew recipes are: the Wyeast home page and the White Labs Yeast home page. Since there are so many places on the web where you can get free homebrew recipes why use one that probably will only produce a beer tasting like syrup or
possibly infected with bacteria anyway?

So it seems that the open source angle is simply... *gasp*... a marketing ploy to further an iffy beer recipe.

Yeah, I'm a bit off the beaten path today. But it's still something that I think needs to be said...

New food guidelines have been released by the United States Department of Agriculture. You can view them yourself here. If you have Adobe Reader, you can read the consumer brochure here.

The Food Pyramid is nowhere to be seen, although Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman said her department was still discussing whether to continue using the pyramid format. It's replaced by a page that doesn't list food in a hierarchical format. The reason for that?

If you've read Food Politics by Marion Nestle, you'll know why this occured. The process in which these standards are developed are vetted heavily by corporations and lobby groups. If a standard says "Eat less beef" (which is kind of a good thing), the beef industry tends to get a little upset. Hence the lobbying to make beef seem less bad than say...vegetables.
So when you hear the news about this in the coming days, keep in mind the process it took to create this.

Let's do some meta-blogging eh?

Last week, I exchaged a few e-mails with Ethan Gilsdorf in regard to the Food Blog Awards. Today? His article on Food Blogs has been published in the Boston Globe.

My take? I enjoyed it, as it gave those new to blogging a quick overview and some first hand accounts (including my own). My only qualm with it the same one I have with most articles on blogs...that it shows as a collection of nominally-obsessed hobbyists (You see this same perspective when they talk about Political Blogs). The reality is that blogging is a new medium that has yet to find its full potential. Focused correctly, it can have an affect upon a collective conscious.

I could go into my own perspective on what Content Management Systems(such as typepad, Blogger, B2Evolution, etc) can add to journalism, writing and other related industries. That's best left to when I have had a drink or two and a good meal in front of me.

The reality of Food Blogs is that there is some remarkable writing going on in the food blog community. Posts that I would state as good as or better than some of the articles in Saveur or Gourmet. I could say that sometime in the near future, someone will recognize this fact and act upon it.

I could say that, but I'd be wrong. It's already happened. Clotilde at Chocolate & Zucchini is becoming her own small cottage industry, and let's not forget Julie Powell at the long-departed Julie/Julia project who was able to secure a book contract that she describes as "a really obscene book deal".

Now let's be honest, not all Food Bloggers are going to have that kind of success. But the precedent has been set. I'll repeat it again so we're clear on this. Blogging is a new medium who's full potential has not yet been realized. Food Blogs are at least as effective in distributing information about the various food industries as anything published by Conde Nast, if not more so.

It's time we recognized that.

Looking to start your own brewery? Wanting an interesting recipe? You might want to give the folks at Vores Ol a buzz. They're offering their recipe to anyone who wants it...for free.

It's open source and under Creative Commons license. If you wish to use it, you have to use their recipe to brew the beer or to create a derivative of their recipe. You are free to earn money from the Beer, but you have to publish the recipe under the same license (e.g. on your website or on our forum) and credit their work. You can use all thier design and branding elements, and are free to change them at will provided you publish your changes under the same license ("Attribution & Share Alike").

Their FAQ for this is located here.

Their recipe?

Recipe for approx. 85 ltr. Vores Øl (Our Beer) (approx. 6% alchohol by volume).
Malt extract

For Vores Øl use four types malted barley:

• 6 kg pilsner malt
• 4 kg münsner malt
• 1 kg caramel malt
• 1 kg lager malt

The malt is crushed and put in 55-60°C hot water for 1-2 hours.

The mixture is filtered and the liquid now contains about 10 kg malt extract.
Taste and sugar

Besides malt use:

• 60 g Tetnang bitter hops
• 50 g Hallertaver aroma hops
• 300 g Guarana beans
• 4 kg sugar

(Guarana beans can typically be bought at health food stores).

The malt extact is brought to a boil in a large pot with the hops and approx. 70 ltr. of water.

After half an hour, the Guarana beans and sugar is added.

The mixture simmers for about an hour, and is then filtered and cooled in a sealed container.

Fermentation

Yeast is added and the beer is fermented at room temperature for approx. 2 weeks.

When the beer is fully fermented it is transferred to bottles. First 4 g sugar is added per liter and some yeast from the bottom of the fermentation tanks for priming.

Vores Øl is then left in the bottles at room temperature for 8-10 days for carbonation. Then the beer is ready to enjoy; cold and refreshing.

This recipe is under a Creative Commons license. This is the one you need to use if you use the above recipe.

It's that time of the year to start planning your CSA account.

You don't know what a CSA is? It's an acronym for "Community Supported Agriculture", and it connects Farmers directly with consumers, cutting out the middle men of produce.

For a pre-determined price, you get a regularly delivered basket of farm raised goodies. Or if you're big on travel, you can pick up the basket at a pre-determined location. There are several benefits from having a CSA account, including:

• Providing farmers with direct outlets for farm products and ensuring fair compensation.
• Strengthens local economies by keeping food dollars in local communities.
• Directly linking producers with consumers allowing people to have a personal connection with their food and the land on which it was produced.

My favorite bit about CSA's? The basket is often different week to week, depending on what's in season. It forces you to cook to the season. Additional benefit? My money goes to farmers rather than the bastards at the industrial farms.

This year, I think I'm going to work with the Pike Place Market CSA. Since sign up starts in early Feburary, it's probably a good time to start your own research.

I'm in the midst of a Fava Bean frenzy.

Okay, not really, but it made me giggle to write that last bit.

If there is one thing that I have learned over the past weekend about Fava Beans is how much they are a pain in the ass they can be...unless you have canned.

If you have dry beans (and I do), you have to prep them at least 24 hours in advance before you can use them. How do you prep them? Sit them in a bowl of cold water (covered with water) and let then re-hydrate them for a day or two. Change the water once or twice if you're afraid of flatulence...called Flatulephobia (okay, I just made that up).

With Fava Beans, there's this skin that you have to deal with. The skin of the bean does NOT taste good. So you have to shell the beans as well. You can shell them either before you cook them (as I did) or after you cook them.

So you sit there, waiting for days to cook your beans, and how long do they cook in boiling water? 4-6 minutes. That's it! 36 hours of waiting and then 4-6 minutes of cooking. *sigh* It's not the payoff one may be looking for. The best way to test for doneness? Either a taste test, or pinch a bean and feel if it is still hard. If it is, continue cooking. If it isn't drain the beans immediately (unless you want them smooshy).

The taste,however, is darn good, and I'm saying that as a verifiable non-bean eater. It's a little meaty in taste, as well as beany.And it carries other flavors very well, so it can be used as a delivery vehicle for the taste of various spices.

Oh, and yes, beans do cause flatulence. A little thing called oligosaccharides (complex sugars) are sometimes hard to digest in some people, and instead are processed in the lower intestine. The end result? Gas. (*snicker*).

Known in Italy as Fettuccine con i fagioli di Fava, this meal is a perfect Winter time dish. I say that as I watch the snow that fell upon Seattle last night slowly melt into icy puddles.

The puree of Fava Beans holds itself on the pasta quite nicely. The boldness of the beans compliments the pasta rather than smothering it, as some sauces are prone to do (I'm looking at you, Puttanesca!). Fava Beans can be a pain t oowork with as you have to let the dry beans soak in water between 24-36 hours, and then shell them (either before or after you cook them in boiling water for 4-5 minutes). But they are certainly worth the wait. Avoid the canned beans if possible, and you'll see what I mean.

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh oregano
• 1 1/2 cups Chicken Stock
• Salt and ground pepper
• 2 cups cooked, peeled fava beans
• 3/4 pound dried fettuccine
• 4 oz grated Parmesan cheese

Get out a medium sauce pan and place it over medium heat. Add olive oil, and wait a minute or two in order to allow oil to heat up. Add Garlic and brown in the heated oil (approx 5 minutes). Afterwards, add the freshly chopped oregeno and 1 cup of the chicken stock. Bring the stock to a boil. As it hits the boil, add 1 and 1/2 cups of the pre-cooked Fava beans. Bring up to a simmer (approx. 185 F degrees). Once it reaches a simmer, salt and pepper to taste.

Take the Fave/Stock mixture and pout it into a blender (or use a hand blender if you have one...I don't, much to my deepest shame). Puree the Fave/Stock mixture. Add the rest of the stock (1/2 cup) and puree some more. Don't worry if it looks to "liquidy" at this point. Pour back into sauce pan and add remaining whole Fava Beans. Lower the heat to medium low and allow to simmer. The starches of the beans will thicken the sauce during this point. See, I told you not to worry.

Make Fettuccine according to directions (add dried pasta to boiling water, and cook 12-14 minutes). Place pasta into large serving boil. Drizzle with olive oil, and add Fave Bean sauce. Mix with tongs. Plate, top with Parmesan cheese, and serve!

Serves 4

Last year, there were no bloggie awards for food blogs. Hence the Food Blog Awards on this site.

This year, those in charge of the the bloggies have recognized food blogs. See, people are taking notice of all of us! Head over to their site to nominate your favorite.

All the winners have been announced, and here is the handy-dandy full blown list of winners.

Best Food Blog - Restaurant Reviews
Chez Pim

Best Food Blog - Food Industry
The Food Section

Best Food Blog - Theme
Slice

Best Food Blog - City
Seattle Bon Vivant: Seattle, WA

Best Food Blog - Chef
Movable Feast

Best Food Blog - Wine, Beer and other Spirits
Vinography -

Best Food Blog - Photography
101 Cookbooks

Best Food Blog - Humor
The Amateur Gourmet -

Best Food Blog - Recipes
Chocolate & Zucchini

Best Food Blog - Writing
Chocolate & Zucchini

Best Site Design
Chocolate & Zucchini

Best Non-Blogging Food Site
eGullet -

Best Post
Domestic Goddess: How to Suck-up 101 -

Best Group Blog
Too Many Chefs

Best New Blog
Tiny Fork -

Best Overall Food Blog
Chocolate & Zucchini

There are so many people to thank who helped put this together. I would like to thank the sponsors, who helped ensure that prizes would be available to a fair majority of the categories. I would also like to thank Tara, who put this together last minute (because of my own poor planning).

I would like to also thank the writers of all food blogs. I know it sounds odd, but we are all getting noticed by the food writing community. This past week alone, I've done interviews for two mainstream newspapers surrounding food blogs.

Finally, I would like to thank all the readers out there who had strong enough opinions of the food blogs to not only nominate their favorites sites, but also vote for them. We had well over 7000 individual votes across the 16 categories. This speaks much of how much food blogs are enjoyed.

Here's to a wonderful 2004 in the food blog community, and to a stronger 2005!

This is it... the best of the best. The one everyone was waiting for... I won't keep you in anymore suspense.

Your nominees are:

*Best Overall Food Blog*

• The Amateur Gourmet
• Chez Pim
• Chocolate & Zucchini
• Noodle Pie
• shiokadelicious!

The winner?

Read more! »

2004 saw an explosion of new food blogs starting up (including the one your reading now). As blogging moved into the mainstream, it was only time that those who had a passion for food would stake their claim in the blogosphere. And we are much better for it.

Your nominees are:

*Best New Blog*

• A la Cuisine
• Becks & Posh
• Nosh-Blog
• Tiny Fork
• words to eat by

And the Winner is...

Read more! »

I have to tell you, I love group blogs. The idea of several opinions and perspectives coming from one centralized location strikes me as the pinacle of what a blog can do. And in regards to food? It means more recipes. Food blogs had no shortage of group blogs, and that makes me very happy.

The nominees are:

*Best Group Blog*

• The Daily Bread
• Gastronome
• Gothamist
• This Mama Cooks
• Too Many Chefs

The winner is:

Read more! »

I'm of the belief that many of the posts that crossed out monitors this past year are as good as anything you'll find in the major food publications. The list of posts below represent some of the best food writing I enjoyed in 2004.

Your Nominees are:

*Best Post*

• Chez Pim: A Meal fit for a Prophet
• Chez Pim: A Perfect Paris afternoon and a tale of Two Ispahan
• Domestic Goddess: How to Suck-up 101
• shiokadelicious: Of Birthdays Past
• Spiceblog: IMBB6 Dam and Lambnation - Yabbies and Chops over Mallee
  Roots

And the best post of 2004 is -

Read more! »

I wanted to ensure that kudos were given to sites that weren't blogs, hence this award. These sites below represent the best reference sites available to foodies world-wide. All these sites are worthwhile, but only one stood out from the rest.

The nominees are:

*Best Non-Blogging Food Site*

• a la carte
• Chowhound
• eGullet
• Food Porn Watch
• Leite's Culinaria

And the winner is:

Read more! »

Site design is a major component of having a blog, setting its mood and style. I consider this award a tech award, along the lines of "Best Cinematography" for the Oscars.

Anyway, your nominees are:

*Best Site Design*

• 101 Cookbooks
• Banlieusardices
• Chocolate & Zucchini
• The Food Section
• Raging Yoghurt

And the winner is -

Read more! »

Just a quick plug for the restaurants in the Seattle area who are holding several fund-raising events to help with Tsunami relief. Seattle is home to a large Thai and Indonesiann community, and the tsunami hit particularly close to home. It may be a drop in a bucket, but really, any little bit helps. If you're in the Seattle area over the coming week, be sure to stop at one of the places listed below.

The below list was pulled from the Seattle P-I.

TODAY
Royal Palm Thai Restaurant (6417 Roosevelt Way; 206-523-2400) will host a benefit buffet today. Cost: $15 per person. Royal Palm owner Kayanee Swenson, an Edmonds Rotarian, will donate all buffet proceeds to a sister Rotary Club in Bangkok. Hours: 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

THURSDAY
Racha Noodles and Thai Cuisine (23 Mercer St.; 206-281-8883). All proceeds from the day's sales, including tips but excluding sales tax, will be donated to the Thai Red Cross. Cost: regular menu prices. On Thursday only, no reservations will be accepted; discounts and promotions will not be honored. Hours: 11 a.m.-11 p.m.

Shamiana (10724 NE 68th St., Kirkland; 425-827-4902) and World Beat Cafe (2255 N.E. 65th St; 206-524-3664) will host a Victims Benefit Buffet. Suggested donation: $25 per person. One hundred percent of all proceeds will be sent to Mercy Corps. Hours: 11 a.m.-9 p.m. (Shamiana); 4-9 p.m. (World Beat Cafe).

MONDAY-TUESDAY
Bombay Grill (4737 Roosevelt Way N.E.; 206-632-5072). A special dinner buffet featuring some of the restaurant's best dishes. Fifty percent of each diner's total bill will go to the Indian Red Cross. Cost: $13.95, excluding tax, beverage and gratuity. Hours: 5-9 p.m.

TUESDAY
>Chow Foods Seattle will donate 25 percent of each restaurant's revenue and server tips to Mercy Corps to aid victims of the Southeast Asian earthquake and tsunami. Cost: regular menu prices. Hours: all day at each restaurant:
Coastal Kitchen, 429 15th Ave. E.; 206-322-1145
5 Spot, 1502 Queen Anne Ave. N.; 206-285-7768
Endolyne Joe's, 9261 45th Ave.; 206-937-6310

The Hi-Life, 5425 Russell Ave. N.W.; 206-784-7272
Atlas, 2820 N.E. University Village; 206-522-6025
Jitterbug, 2114 N. 45th St.; 206-547-6313

Thai restaurants offer donation sites

Through Jan. 31, there will be donation boxes at 57 Thai restaurants throughout greater Seattle to benefit Thai Red Cross tsunami disaster relief.

Seattle
Ayutthaya (Capitol Hill); Bahn Thai (Seattle Center); Chaiyo (Northgate); Chili Paste (Fremont); Golden Singha (Belltown); Jai Thai (Broadway, Fremont and Belltown); Jamjuree, (Capitol Hill); Kwanjai Thai (Fremont); May (Wallingford); Orapin (Queen Anne); Phailin (West Seattle); Phuket (Queen Anne); Racha Noodles & Thai Cuisine (Lower Queen Anne); Rice N' Spice (Lower Queen Anne); Rom Mai Thai (Broadway); Royal Palm (Roosevelt); Siam On Broadway; Siam On Lake Union; Simply Thai (Broadway); Superbowl (Greenlake); Tawon Thai (Fremont); Thai Dusit (U District); Thai Ginger (Madison Park, Pacific Place); Thai Go (Northgate Mall); Thai Kitchen (Queen Anne); Thaiku (Ballard); Thai Place (Uwajimaya Village); Thai Star (Capitol Hill); Tiger Room (U District); Tup Tim Thai (Queen Anne)

Read more! »

It's the written word that draws us in, creates an image and allows us to vicariously experience the moment that the writer has created. It's the strength of a food writer that inpires us to cook, educates us, and makes us feel as if we are sitting directly in the restaurants that the writers have visited.

The Nominees for writing are:

*Best Food Blog - Writing*

• Chez Pim
• Chocolate & Zucchini
• CuliBlog
• Orangette
• shiokadelicious!

And the Winner is -

Read more! »

What would food writing be without the recipes from which we draw our inspiration? If you want to cook something new or exotic, the sites below provided us with recipes for all seasons.

Your nominees are:

*Best Food Blog - Recipes*

• l'art de vivre
• Chocolate & Zucchini
• Elise's Simply Recipes
• Fresh Catering
• The Passionate Cook

The Winner is -

Read more! »

Food and humor go together like peanut butter and bananas. Who below might be the next Calvin Trillin?

Your nominees are:

*Best Food Blog - Humor*

• The Amateur Gourmet
• Culiblog
• The Food Whore
• Meat Henge
• The Passionate Cook

The Winner is -

Read more! »

Living vicariously through food pictures is an aspect of food blogging that brings us closer to the recipes that are cooked. The Pictures takeb by all of the nominees in this category made us apprecaite the food that was cooked. The nominees for best Photography are:

*Best Food Blog - Photography*

• 101 Cookbooks
• A la Cuisine
• Arthur Hungry
• She who eats
• shiokadelicious!

The winner is-

Read more! »

I have learned so much about beer and wine from all of these sites. If you are a fan of spirits as much as I am, all of these sites deserve your attention.

Your nominees are:

*Best Food Blog - Wine, Beer and other Spirits*

• A Good Beer Blog
• Huge Johnsons World of Wine
• Lenndevours
• Professor Bainbridge on Wine
• vinography

The winner is:

Read more! »

If you want to know what it's like to runa restaurant, or learn to be a chef, these nominees are for you. I have a great amount of respect for people in the food industry, knowing how stressful the job can be at times.

The Nominees are:

*Best Food Blog - Chef*

• Burning my Fingers
• cookingdiva
• Movable Feast
• One Toque Over The Line
• Shiok Food

And the winner is...

Read more! »

Below are some of the best blogs that gives one a strong sense of a locality. I learned so much from all of these sites. The winner of this award will recieve a hardback copy of Are you really going to Eat That? by Robb Walsh. Your nominees are...

*Best Food Blog - City*

• Grab Your Fork: Sydney, AUS
• Noodle Pie: Saigon, VN
• Ono Kind Grindz: Hawaii
• Seattle Bon Vivant: Seattle, WA
• Sydney Food Diary: Sydney, AUS

The Winner?

Read more! »

This is my favorite category, as it is wonderful to read about very specified topics. The winner here will get a copy of Schott's Food and drink Miscellany provided by Sam from Becks and Posh.

*Best Food Blog - Theme*

• 18th Century Cuisine: 18th Century Cuisine
• Kosher Bachelor: Kosher Cooking
• Mum-Mum: Asian Cuisine
• Pho-King: Pho
• Slice: Pizza

And the winner is...

Read more! »

A surprising strong response to this category, it was also one of the closer ones. But we do have a clear winner, and a sponsor for the award as well.

*Best Food Blog - Food Industry*

Your nominees are:

• The Food Section
• A Full Belly
• Life Begins at Thirty
• Saute Wednesday
• Super Chef Blog

The winner is...

Read more! »

The winner of this award will recieve a hardback copy of Are you really going to Eat That? by Robb Walsh.

*Best Food Blog - Restaurant Reviews*

The Nominees are

• Becks & Posh
• Chez Pim
• FatMan Seoul
• Ono Kine Grindz
• Tasting Menu

And the winner is...

Read more! »

The votes have been tabulated, and all results are currently known by Tara and myself. Tara scrubbed the voting database this morning, removing only duplicate votes (as determined by the IP addresses that were logged when votes were cast). In order to maintain a fair amount of transparency, we will offer the databases (both pre-scrubbed and post-scrubbed) to be reviewed by anyone who makes such a request. However, it should be noted that everyone who had won their category before scrubbing the poll results remained the winner post-scrub. If you have nay question, feel free to place them in the comments below.

That being said, The vote results are final and have been determined by you, the readers. Some of the categories had as many as 700 individual voters. Every nominee recieved at least a dozen votes. Everyone has something to be proud of.

Many thanks to the hundreds who voted in the 2004 Food Blog Awards! Votes have been recorded and ip adresses logged.

Winners will be announced over a period of several days, because I like long drawn out drama. Be well and Be patient. All will be revealed no later than Jan 8th.