Ground and Formed Sliced Dry Beef

Sometimes you find the most interesting food while wandering through the grocery store. Some turn out to be delicious (like, say, Silk-brand soy eggnog), some not-so-good (like “cultured soy”), and some I’m not trying, like Armour-brand Ground and Formed Sliced Dry Beef. You can see some information at netgrocer. It has the form of brownish disks, packed in a glass jar. If you want to know what it tastes like, go try some yourself.

more food blogging: eggs

I’ve been reading Last Chance To Eat by Gina Mallet, a book I’ll have more to say about later, and she waxes so eloquently about eggs that I decided to eat some.

I haven’t been eating eggs other than as a minor ingredient in some more complex food, but I used to enjoy the occasional hard boiled egg, so I thought I’d try one. I already have some high-quality eggs from free-range vegetarian happy hens, bought at the local natural foods co-op. My theory is that since I use very few eggs, it doesn’t really matter how much they cost, and when was the last time a hen did something bad to me? Never. As George Carlin put it, chickens are decent people. So why torture hens to save a few bucks a year?

Step one: figure out how to hard boil an egg. I know, you boil it, but how long? Five minutes? Hour and a half? Cookbooks tend not to mention any details, possibly because they figure such simple things are beneath them. Fortunately, we have Google. The procedure I used is: place egg in cold water, bring to boil, boil two minutes, let sit twelve off the heat with the lid on, then cool in cold water for half an hour. I’d forgotten how satisfying a simple egg is, or maybe it’s the happy hens than make the difference.

Today’s project was a stuff-I-had-on-hand omelette. Stuff I had on hand was crimini mushrooms, onion, and some soft tofu. I don’t think I’ve got the cooking technique exactly right but I’m nonetheless very satisfied with the tasty results. That was certainly the first omelette I’ve cooked and maybe the first I’ve eaten.

I think Mallet’s book is going to have me eyeing the cheese selection at the co-op next.

Page 23

1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Open the book to page 23.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the text of the sentence in your journal...along with these instructions.

When the prime minister wore a suit to a royal audience, rather than the required knee breeches, the King acidly inquired if he was in the train of the American ambassador, who dressed sometimes as indifferently as a sans-culotte.

Last Chance to Eat: The Fate of Taste in a Fast Food World, Gina Mallet.