concord grapes

are delicious. the end.

i made jelly out of them. it was super delicious. the end.

ate it on naan bread for breakfast. stained my teeth and shirt. the end.

totally worth it. the end.

Baked Udon

In my old house we had 4 gas burners to 3 people and it was never enough. Imagine a house with 4 people and 2 electric burners. Needless to say, sometimes you just cant cook when you want to. The other night Kyle and I ran into this predicament before work. Our idea, make Oyako Don/Udon in the oven. My mother gave me two cast iron cobbler pots that were still unseasoned and I figured it was time to break them in.

Below: First we preheated the oven, added some sesame oil, and dropped in the cut chicken and onions.


Below: We added udon noodles over the chicken and dropped some broth over it.


Below: Everything cooking up nice? Time to add some mushrooms.


Below: We dropped in some beaten egg and scallions and let everything cook in and set. The final product. Delish. Needed just a little bit of soy sauce but everything was cooked to perfection.


Conclusion? Fuck electric burners.

Ben's going to say "put an egg in it"

So we tried to make some Soup. you know, The Soup. well, maybe.

Matt and I watched "Ramen Girl" (you know, that brittany murphy movie about how she's a rich little girl who doesnt know what to do with her life so she moves to japan with her boyfriend who really doesnt like her all that much so he moves to china somewhere and she gets really bored and finds a ramen house and decides she wants to make ramen so she endures the brusque japanese personality of the ramen house owner and she doesnt speak any japanese but in the end she moves to america and makes soup. you know, THAT movie) and we got inspired.

so we took some ramens and threw out the flavor packets and boiled em up in some water. also, we took some dried mushrooms and reconstituted them in about 4 cups water on the stove and while they were cooking threw in some frozen green beans and carrots and shrimpies to cook (pulled 'em out when they were done and put to the side), and microwaved some spinaches. to the broth i also added about a tbsp of soy sauce, at big tbsp of miso, a tsp of balsamic vinegar, a big shake of garlic powder, and just for kicks, some brown sugar.

we assembled the whole thing and started to chow down and guess what. guess frickin what. it was bland as all get out. omg so bland. i put in so many things! the broth tasted AMAZING until we put the noodles in. matt resorted to adding some of the flavor packet but it just didnt seem to help. now we know what brittany had to go through and why the old japanese man threw out her broth time and time again.

poop. at least it looked pretty. and the shrimps were DELICIOUS.

any suggestions? especially you Soup connoisseurs?

FISH > YUENGLING

Look at that fish. look at his beady little eyes. i ate him. yes i did! i ate him right up.
him and his brothers. the red snappa' brothers. i ate all of them. like the gangsta i am, i first laid them on a bed of salt (that i added some whipped egg whites too). also i stuffed those mothah fuckahs with some lemon and onion and garlic, because THAT IS HOW I ROLL.
look at them all snug in their beds made of salt! so cute. that's like 5 pounds of salt there. and like 6 whipped egg whites. that's a lot of salt.
here they go -- into the oven at 425 for 30 minutes. there's no real way to tell when they're done, so just know that a 1.5 lb fish wrapped in about an inch or more of salt will take 25 minutes to cook. TRUST THE TIMING. i added a few more minutes because i cooked two fish to the pan. i mean bed. bed of salt.
then... then i cracked that salt right off. and threw it in the GARBAGE. fucking salt. it also got everywhere. but not inside my fishies! awesome. they have dead eyes now. right when they came out of the oven, the eyes were all swelled up because the liquid inside boiled, but then after a few minutes they caved in. animal eyes are cool.
yeah, this is me de-skinning those delicious fishys. you take that skin right off and the meat inside is delicous and moist. and surprisingly not salty at all! omg. i'm going to have to tell you guys about going to the fish market in trenton. oh man. matt just threw me off track for a second. where was i?
oh fuck yeah. that's such a good combination. dale's pale ale (the best beer in existence in a can) (also Matt says it's damned delicious and he's got a pretty good repoire when it comes to beer tasting) (also it's just a fact) and some red snapper. oh yeah, i was going to tell you guys about this place - ok, so. FISH AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE. seriously. like 30 varieties of fish, all ready to be de-scaled and de boned and gutted and everythign by my helpful mexican de-fisherizer. he was amazing. there were also tanks of live fish in case i wanted to take home my own tilapia for a pet. also, there was a WALL of SHRIMP. i almost lost my boyfriend to grocery section! and whole rock crabs and blue crabs (but only the females which is just tragic because they take em out of the waters and then who will be there to make the next generation of little crabbies for me to eat?)lauren got really grossed out by the eyeballs. and the spine. personally, i like looking at all the parts of something i'm eating... i mean, hell. it's going inside you, you might as well get a good look, eh? am i right?

oh the remains. the best parts were the fishmeats on teh bottom of the fishies because the juices soaked through all the lemons and garlics and got just a touch salty and it was amazing. that's my fork right there, i was picking the remains. YUM.
greg says "THIS FISH IS BETTER THAN YUENGLING" and then got in a philosophical discussion with matt about how yuengling is just adequate and then john terry piped in with how yuengling is to beer what dante's peak is to movies. but everyone agreed that the fish was better than both of those things.
and that's what's left. not too shabby for less than 10 bucks a head! (including salad and greenbeans as a side dish) (also there was a tart that i made from almost overripe fruit that was pretty bangin but is an entry all its own) (BEN WHAT? TOP THAT WITH YOUR MINI EGGS. I DARE YA, and matt just fucked your milkshake)