Why do people rag on Rachael Ray?

I've been thinking about this since I read this piece in her defense over on The Kitchn. Because yes, I've cooked a lot of her recipes, and Found Them Good. Her ribollita con verdure is maybe the favorite dish in our house, ever. Sure, her mannerisms can be a bit annoying (though I think her snuffly little chuckle is kind of cute) but her show is all about putting good, tasty food on the table every day, even when you're tired and only have 30 minutes. And what on earth is wrong with that?

Here's what I've been thinking. Food culture over the last few years has changed, so that it is both aspirational and a high status signifier.

Just like a Rolex says "I have a great deal of money", cooking (in a SWPL kind of culture anyway) has come to say: "I'm sophisticated, educated, and worldly in my taste, and yet I'm also earthy and sensual and generous. The kitchen is the warm beating heart of my home. Come. Sit. Eat. Share. Close your eyes and you might be in Tuscany, or Hong Kong, or one of the nicer parts of Louisiana."

Note that I don't think these are bad things at all. But the aspirational element is key to most of the female cooks on TV, whether it's sensual, beautiful, tragic Nigella in her elegant London kitchen, or Giada entertaining family-style on the terrace. None of that is what chirpy Rachael Ray - pudgy, proley, and entirely without pretension - is about. She's about putting food on the table - delicious, fast, easy food that anyone can make, with ingredients from any supermarket.

That doesn't seem so bad to me.

Vosges Bacon bar

Mo's Bacon Bar - Bacon Exotic Candy Bar, originally uploaded by brian cors.

If this is wrong, I don't want to be right.

Ingredients: Applewood smoked bacon + alderwood smoked salt + deep milk chocolate, 41% cacao + sin.

Buy online from Vosges Chocolate.

Boost your leafy green intake: Use spinach instead of starch

A bed of spinach, originally uploaded by Ríona.

it's always a good idea to find new ways to boost your intake of leafy green vegetables, especially during the last few months when the cold, gray days don't make me crave salad.

An easy way to do this is to serve food on a bed of spinach instead of rice, potatoes, or other starch. This photo shows a big soup I made of cabbage, vegetables, white beans, ham, tomatoes, a little orzo, and plenty of garlic (delicious) - it thickened since yesterday and was very, very good over spinach.

I've found that this also works especially well with spicy Indian-style dishes, like dals and vegetable curries ( try this sweet potato and pumpkin curry that's a favorite round these parts).

Spillage be gone!

photo.jpg, originally uploaded by Ríona.

I was reading the paper in the kitchen Sunday morning (after the tall fella's delicious pancakes) when I heard an odd sound and in some surprise saw him taking the drill to the mixing bowl.

I got this bowl in an IKEA starter box close to 10 years ago, and for all that time it's been irritating me: when it's upside down in the dishwasher, its base fills with water that spills everywhere when you lift it out.

Not any more. Now its base is ringed with neatly drilled holes, and water drains out straight away.

A man of action.

Also, I should have stayed later at the office

Via No Impact Man (cartoon by Eric Lewis courtesy of Cartoon Bank)

Kitchen Cure Week 1: Getting rid of old food

This week's Kitchen Cure assignment was to go through your fridge, pantry, and cupboards, and get rid of everything out of date, going bad, or never used. Haven't opened that box of tea in a year? (Guilty.) Toss it!

Here's everything I dumped today:



Fridge before:


Fridge after:


Spice cupboard before:


Spice cupboard after:


Pantry before:


Pantry after:


We moved back into our house only in September last year, so we haven't had time to accumulate too much crap. Nonetheless I was surprised to find just how many duplicates (spices, mainly) we had.

Getting rid of stuff is always worth the effort.

Now go take a look at what everybody else has been doing.

This just in: Coolio endorses crushed tomatoes

Coolio knows that everyone has to take shortcuts in the kitchen. Holding up a can of crushed tomatoes to the camera, he rightly observes: "You can crush your own tomatoes if you want, it's up to you, but I don't have time for that shit personally."

Decoupaged IKEA chairs

Erin says:

we couldn't stand our boring stefan chairs any longer so my husband decided to decoupage them with images of elvis presley and horror comic books. each chair took days to create.

Aren't they beautiful? Via ikea hacker: elvis is in the house!

Doing the Kitchen Cure!

IMG_7374, originally uploaded by All About Eve.

I love the Apartment Therapy blog, and the book Apartment Therapy was instrumental in helping us declutter and simplify our life, as well as helping us focus on creating a home that is refuge and sanctuary. I'd go so far as to say it was life-changing.

Now The Kitchn, AT's site about cooking at home, has kicked off its Kitchen Cure! The goals of the cure? The first two weeks are about getting your kitchen in shape: throwing out anything unused, organizing cabinets, drawers, and countertops. Next up is building the pantry, basic skills, and techniques for building a menu. The graduation: Friends over for dinner. (I hate the term "dinner party").

While I never did the formal 8-week apartment cure, I did follow many of the steps and loved it: by stretching the process over a couple of months, and breaking big steps into manageable actions, the process really becomes less intimidating. And the pictures on the Flickr group were inspiring: unlike decor magazines, AT is about real people in real apartments.

This week's assignments:

• Check out The Kitchn Cure Flickr Page and upload your "before" photos. Open those cupboards and refrigerator doors and dare to show us the state of things. If you want to highlight your pics, put your link in with your comments. This will allow us all to talk about one and learn from one another's project.
  
• Go through your refrigerator, cupboards, counter-tops and pantry and clean up your food clutter. The foods we have in our kitchens should be fresh and replenished frequently. Take a long hard look at that tin of wasabi powder you got on your trip to Japan three years ago. Re-consider the jar of preserved lemons you got as a wedding favor five years ago. It's brown, you have no idea how to use it, and it takes up energetic space in your kitchen. Toss it. Here are the basic guidelines for de-cluttering your food:
  
  • if it has expired
    
  • if it has not been used in the last 6-12 months
    
  • if it has duplicates (combine containers if possible)
    
• Take all of what remains and wipe it down with a warm, moist cloth. For containers of oil, for example, that may have a film, you might need to use a cleanser (something earth-friendly diluted with warm water) to cut through the grease.

With more than 200 participants, this is a real community effort. I'm excited about getting our kitchen back in shape: because I love to cook so much, it's the room I spend the most time in. I'm not naturally a tidy or organized person, but I've found that the more streamlined my space, the less stressed I am. I'll be blogging my efforts here.

Parks like an asshole #3

Parks like an asshole #3, originally uploaded by Ríona.

On dinner parties

"The dinner party is the opportunity for white people to be judged on their taste in food, wine, furniture, art, interior design, music, and books. Outside of dictatorships and a few murder trials, there might not be a more rigorous judgment process in the modern world. Everything must be perfect. One copy of US Weekly, a McDonalds wrapper, a book by John Grisham, a Third Eye Blind CD, or an Old School DVD can undo months and maybe even years of work."

From Stuff White People Like, which continues to bust me 2-3 times a week, from modern furniture to The Wire.

Salon of Shame: The Pros and Cons of Being Anne Frank

Just back from the Salon of Shame, where Seattleites read their middle-school diaries, high-school poetry, unsent letters, and other horribly shameful adolescent writing. It's hilarious. It's oddly touching. It's bloody brilliant is what it is.

Tonight's final reader presented her fifth-grade book report: Why it's good AND bad to be Anne Frank.

Cons of being Anne Frank:

• You don't get to go outside very much
• Not much food
• You don't have any friends except Peter

Pros of being Anne Frank:

• The attic is very private
• Finally getting a boyfriend
• The view is great, except when there are battles.

Crystal meth - friend or foe?

From the scientifically-proven-to-be-awesome Hilarious Science Fair Experiments.

Oh joyous day!Two new episodes of Cooking with Coolio!

In this very special episode, the ghetto gourmet makes spinach even kids will eat.

And in Episode 4, the maestro makes game-day turkey that will make your party fly. Shakazulu!



But wait! There's more! Here's a Q&A Coolio did with Serious Eats. This is important data for those who need to know what will make those panties slide off (Sautéed Shrimp and Soul Rolls, baby), and what's guaranteed to make them stay on (PB&J).

Give this man a show! And make sure his sidekick is on it. I'm loving the way he repeats everything Coolio says.

Save your fingers with a silicon handle sleeve

I cook with cast iron a lot, and those handles get searingly hot. Being all ADD-y and all, probably the only reason I still have a hand is that a dear friend sent me a HotHandle silicon holder (I recall that her card noted that it was studded for our pleasure. So thoughtful!). These things are great for preventing burns. Just keep it in the same place all the time, so grabbing it becomes a habit.

This is something it took me some time to learn.

Lusty Lady Latin marquee

IMG_6863, originally uploaded by jdong.

Seattle's Lusty Lady strip club is famous for its funny and punny marquee signs (my all-time favorite was a Paddy's Day sign that read ERIN GO BRALESS).

Today we went to see the new exhibition of Roman art from the Louvre at the Seattle Art Museum opposite, and I was completely delighted to see these Latin messages on the Lusty Lady's marquee.