I did not know that Mark Bittman wrote for the New York times but I found one of his articles, Pantry Essentials, in the San Jose Mercury News. I looked up the original at nytimes.com and found his prolific Bitten blog.
Based on his article I am inspired to add these to our pantry.
In the interest of time we have been trying to plan a menu for the week on the weekend and referencing various quick recipe cookbooks.
This week we tried a pot roast in a slow cooker. Typically when we cook the pot roast in the slow cooker it turns out dry but this time we tried a recipe we found in a slow cooker cookbook. This cookbook recommended cooking it on low for 9 hours. The result was much more tender than last time.
This article in the San Jose Mercury News explains why.
As any barbecuer knows, the sweet spot for slow cooking meat lies between 225 and 275 degrees. Temperatures in this range are high enough to break down the tough connective tissue into soft gelatin, but not so high as to force too much of the moist juice into the pan. Fatty cuts of meat do particularly well, as the melting fat bathes the surface of the meat and prevents evaporation.
Nothing but time (And a few herbs and spices) – San Jose Mercury News
Several times I have read recommendations to eat grass fed beef.
Reasons to buy grass fed beef.
Reasons not to buy grass fed beef.
I did a search for Bay Area grass fed beef and found this article, Bay Area Sources: Free-Range and Grass-Fed Meat & Poultry. I ended up ordering from the first one listed, Chileno Beef, for several reasons.
. But cheap is relative, it’s about $450 for 100 pounds and I am not sure how much of this is bones and fat. This beef packages page from another farm gives an idea of what I can expect in the quarter beef package. And I still have to drive ninety minutes to pick it up but I guess I will save time later from not having to go buy beef every couple of weeks.
I talked with Mike who is pictured on the right with his wife Sally and is the owner of the ranch. He said they do everything natural but they are not organic for three reasons.
Morris Grassfed Beef also impressed me. The ranch is very environmental and the beef is completely organic.
Now I need to find an economical place for buying grass fed pork and chicken. There is Clark Summit Farm in Tomales, CA which is two hours away but only 30 minutes from Chileno Valley ranch. 90 – 100 pounds of pork is $290 plus $45 harvesting fee. Their beef prices are a bit more expensive than Chileno but it’s reasonable considering I think they use organic feed. Luckybird Farm has relatively reasonable poulty prices but they are two hours north in Capay Valley. I also contacted Silver Springs Ranch in Martinez and “Tastes Like Chicken” Ranch in Watsonville, both only an hour away, to find out their prices.
Here is a Google map courtesy of Eat Wild of all the grass fed ranches in California.
Instead of going through all this effort of finding healthier meat I could just give up and become a pescetarian.
Love is eating the red gummy vitamins because Dylan only likes the yellow gummy vitamins.
We love the gummy vitamins and buy them all the time from Costco because they cost half what they cost at other drug stores. However while searching for an image to add to this post I found this thread about these gummy vitamins containing lead! Investigating it more I realized the thread was four years old and apparently it was for a certain batch. I can’t imagine not having my gummy vitamins; how else will my kids get vitamins?
My boys love watermelon!
Study: Watermelon Has Viagra Effect – TIME
The article’s title is made to grab you. If you actually read it you’ll see that though watermelon might have a viagra effect it cannot be a substitute.
This restaurant, Asia Village, was recommended to me by a friend who used to live in the neighborhood before he left to plant a church. Not having the menu I ended up calling the restaurant and ordering what they recommended.
Overall it was a good experience. I have a feeling we’ll be going there quite often. Still not as good as our old favorite in Boston, Victoria Seafood.
By the way, I wrote most of this on Yelp and then I realized I didn’t want the owner reading my review. So I edited out most of it and put it here. Also I only gave it three stars because I couldn’t figure out how to give it 3.5 stars.
The Monterey Bay Aquarium has a Seafood Watch program.
Your seafood choices make a difference! Our Seafood Guides can help you make choices that are good for you and good for the oceans.
In the West Coast Seafood Guide it says the best choices are fish like Alaska wild salmon, U.S. farmed catfish, pacific halibut. Fishes to avoid include farmed salmon, sharks, imported shrimp, Atlantic cod.
You can download and print out pocket guides that fold up and which you can carry in your wallet or purse for your next seafood shopping or dining experience.
Update 06-23-2009: Now you can get Seafood Watch recommendations on your iPhone.
Thanks to a friend (who will remain nameless but I will say that her until now invisible boyfriend was recently sighted on another blog) I have slowly become addicted to the Stuff Christians Like blog. This post, Stuff Christians Like: #198. Orange Drink, made me laugh out loud.
I went into the back room at youth group to get some napkins. There, out of sight from everyone, was one of the youth leaders making the orange drink. She didn’t know I was there. I watched as she unsuccessfully looked for a ladle or spoon to stir up the water and orange drink mix. When she couldn’t find one, she shrugged, rolled up her sleeve and then stuck her whole arm into the big tub. It was like one of those gatorade containers they dump on coaches that win football games. Only this was no game. She had her entire arm in there, almost up to her armpit. Slowly she stirred it around, using that sweaty appendage as a big spoon.
I ate my discount pizza that night without a drink.
I like when things I read make me laugh out loud because it’s pretty uncommon. I should vow to blog about anything I read that makes me laugh out loud.
Today’s useless trivia question is “What is the botanical difference between green peppers, yellow peppers, and red peppers?”
I thought the answer would be “None!” The actual answer is:
Age is the only difference!
Peppers start out green and then turn yellow, then red, then purple, and finally brown.
As they mature, they get progressively sweeter (until they finally spoil).
Yesterday at Ranch 99 I bought one sierra mackerel and one salmon. The Chinese markets have a nice free service of cutting up the fish into steaks if you request it.
Today for lunch my brother-in-law cooked the salmon using this recipe, Asian Grilled Salmon by Barefoot Contessa. My brother-in-law is quite the cook and though we didn’t have a grill pan it still turned out quite tasty.
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