A Topic I REALLY Love to Yap About

To my family and friends, I'm considered a pretty good cook.  It is one of my favorite things to do, and I believe that energy and enthusiasm ends up rubbing off on the quality and enjoyment of the food.  We've had failures (just ask Kathleen about "Catfish Nugget" night), but on the whole, our family eats yummy, almost exclusively home-cooked food.  We also love hosting holidays, as that allows us to cook many more things, and has been a real testing ground for being a complete cook.

Anyhow, I thought people would be interested in some items and tidbits that I use in our home kitchen that you may not already have tried, or are using regularly.

It's all about flavor, and no prepackaged marinade delivers more than the Goya Mojo.  This VERY reasonably priced Mojo marinade (orange juice, lemon juice, spices and salt) provides plenty of flavor to spice up vegetables or chicken.  My favorite is to take boneless chicken thighs and marinade in the Mojo for about an hour - then grill.  As Guy Fieri says, "That's a ticket to Flavor Town". Yes, you can make this stuff yourself pretty easily, but its price is so appealing, that I'll defer to the convenience angle. 

I am a firm believer in "mouth feel" of food, or the "umami" notion of flavor.  There is something that makes food simply pop, and give a richness that creates food dishes that transcend into memories.  Minor's Bases provide that now non-secret way to inject over the top richness and deep flavor into your cooking.  Add a teaspoon of Chicken Base to your pot of rice, and see the difference it can make.  Rub a pork roast with Pork or Bacon Base, and end up with a rich crust and tons of flavor.  When you are making sauces or gravies, use their Bases (especially the Demi Glace) to create something people will want to eat like soup.  Simply essential products, and my fridge is full of them.  Best purveyor I've found is www.soupbase.com.

When it comes to vinegars, I can think of few market segments than have so many more easily available varieties today than when I was a kid.  Plus, with vinegar packing such a flavor wallop, all these varieties can be utilized in so many different ways.  One issue, though, is that your apple cider, clear and balsamic varieties can be overly strong.  We've come to crave the mild, and somewhat sweet, nuance of Japanese seasoned Rice Vinegar - in particular the Marukan label.  Try a cucumber salad dressed with seasoned salt, a good olive oil and some Marukan Rice Vinegar.  So simple, so good.

Anyway, just wanted to share some reasonably priced little secrets that I've come to use and enjoy.  If you give them a try, let me know what you think!

Momma's Got a Squeezebox..............

Many of you know that we moved in August of last year.  At our old house, the first home improvement project I did was wire my living room based stereo to zoned speakers in my kitchen, which could also be faced outward to the backyard.  This involved running wire through my basement, a weaving wire distance of about 100 feet, and all the Monster Cable you can eat.  Music is so important to us, and having a house full of it was essential.  This was done November 1998, and worked perfectly until the day we moved out.

The notion and technology of music delivery (formerly known as radio, stereo, etc.) has changed just a little bit since 1998.  There were no iPods in 1998.  There was no satellite radio in 1998.  We used CD's.  I still made mix tapes in 1998 (you all did it, so shut up).  I occasionally listened to the actual RADIO - yes, stations picked up locally through the antenna mounted behind the stereo cabinet.  To top it off, our TURNTABLE was still hooked up.  We still did VINYL night on New Year's Eve.  I believe an AARP card just got sent to us. 

The biggest difference for us, however, there was no Pandora in 1998.  Pandora is one of a number of Internet-based music sites, and happens to be the one we enjoy the most.  Besides being completely free, Pandora allows you to create your own personal radio stations based upon artists and/or songs you want to put together.  You can create as many as your little heart desires, with as much nuance as you want.  Kathleen and I have created a ton of different stations that meet our unique tastes.  For example Kathleen has her "Folky" station, which broadcasts things like John Denver, Judy Collins, Roger Miller, etc.  I have my "Funk" station, where I can get The Brand New Heavies, Liquid Soul, Parliament, etc.  We collaborated on a station by selecting roughly 50 songs as a basis that we heard played on eclectic 104.9 out of New Jersey.  Needless to say, we dig Pandora.

With Pandora access built into our Blue-Ray player, it was just an Ethernet cable away from being able to be broadcast on our main stereo in the family room.  That was the first home improvement project I did in this house!

Recently, we were sitting outside, and quickly realized that we had a music issue - there was no music.  Logistically, I can't easily get speakers outside, or facing outside.  We needed a solution.  We wanted our Pandora on our back patio.  My buddy Jim picked up, and highly recommended the Sonos, which could do that, and a whole heck of a lot more.  I'm certainly not cheap, but its pretty substantial pricetag was more than I wanted to drop for music on my back patio.  Back to more research and the proverbial drawing board.

Cue the Sunday paper and its ads.  BOOM, the answer.  (cue Angelic humming) The Logitech Squeezebox!

This device wirelessly connects to our home network, provides access to all our Pandora channels and hundreds more Internet-based music channels.  Kathleen found a great Disney channel for Alex.  Plus you can hook your iPod up to it, as well as load the Squeezebox Server onto your laptop to stream content from your own iTunes repositories and playlists.  This product is a perfect example of form and function at an attractive price - it was $149 on sale.  Music now flows on the back patio!

You know who's pretentious about wine?

My wife and I had an exceptionally rare treat for us this past Saturday.  For the first time in SEVEN months, we had a night out, just the two of us, for dinner and a show.  Just like millions of other adults, but so foreign to babysitter-starved parents.  Needless to say, our dinner needed to be at a minimum "very" good to a more acceptable "I will kill you if you attempt to take away this plate" good.  After much consideration of the Philly highbrow restaurant scene, I settled on Amis.  With babysitter/savior Tara in charge of Alejandro (son), Kermit (the dog) and Opus (the cat - who is rarely seen by "outsiders") off we went.

I love Philadelphia.  The one thing that every Philadelphia area resident will tell you they HATE about Philadelphia is I-76, the Schuylkill Expressway.  The Schuylkill is a perpetually clogged 4 lane highway that connects Center City Philadelphia with its leafy suburbs to its west - where we reside.  With no traffic delays, we can leave our house and arrive in the center of Philadelphia in 25 minutes.  Of course a Saturday afternoon means you need to double that time.   We eventually arrive at our planned parking lot at Broad and Lombard - convenient to the restaurant and to the Kimmel Center. So far, so good - on time for our reservation.

Now, we sit down and peruse the menu.  This is decidedly "foodie" fair, with a pretty interesting and diverse menu.  But, this is a blog about vino, so my last comment about the food will be this:  "I will kill you if you try and take away this plate" good.

This restaurant, like most "fine dining" establishments, had a wine list that hovered around $10 per glass and $40 - $70 per bottle.  That frustrates and annoys me.  I understand the costs involved in glassware, storage and service of wine.  BUT, the markup creates a pricepoint that alienates so many people.  Why is restaurant wine double or triple the price of beer or a basic mixed drink? 

But wait a minute.....Amis offers house wine by the 500ml carafe for $20!!!!!!  Completely brought me back to travels in Europe where we ALWAYS order the house wine, it is always good, and it is always reasonably priced.   We ordered said "House Red Carafe", and as expected, it was wonderful.  Given the Italian theme of the restaurant, I'm thinking this was a basic and hearty Sangiovese or other non-"super" Tuscan.

American restauranteurs are responsible for the pretentiousness of the American wine scene.  Visionaries (well, true descendants of European restaurants) like the folks running Amis are working to recalibrate the public's expectation for restaurant wine.  By setting the price-based reality that wine is an item for the privileged, "regular" folks steer clear of experimenting with wine and their food.  Think about it, if you are out at a restaurant and order a $15 salmon entree, are you going to spend $10 to experiment on an unknown Sauvignon Blanc or *gasp* a Pinot Noir?  I can tell you that so many Americans will not, and will stick with a $3 beer instead.

There are plenty of available options for restaurants to offer solid, if non-spectacular, red and white wines for around $5 per glass.  I believe that if they started doing so, that some of the elitism and pretentiousness surrounding wine in the United States would begin to melt away.

You need to start somewhere.......

I'm having a hard time accepting the fact that "time marches on".  My 20 and 15 year collegiate reunions are coming up in June (not going), my 25 year high school reunion is being planned for next summer (doubtful personal attendance).  I've been working professionally for 20 years - all in some capacity in the Software Industry.  I've been either dating or married to my wonderful wife for over 14 years.  Our cool son is turning 5 shortly.  I've now lived in the Philadelphia area for over 23 years.  Good God.

I'm clearly old experienced!  In this blog I plan on looking back, commenting on today and gaze into the crystal ball in my mind's eye.  Hopefully this will not just be cathartic for me, but something people will find compelling enough to read on a regular basis. 

Not only does time march on, but time will tell!