discwiz

Ok, so I love Foie Gras. I have no problem saying that... however I might now have a problem ordering it.

Jason just sent me a link about how Chicago is banning foie gras. I thought it was ridiculous, ducks are just like any animal... tasty to eat, right? Plus, there are too many damn ducks, so what's the deal?

I looked it up and read a little about it... i had no idea. For all of you that don't know.. read the Wikipedia listing for it. Basically, ducks and geese are force fed with metal pipes down their throats to make their livers expand. That is really really gross. However, it makes the liver taste really really delicious.

Wikipedia reports that the procedure of overfeeding ducks to fatten their livers dates back to the egyptians in 2500 BC. That's thousands of years of eating tasty livers, but now it's inhumane. I'm torn... do I care about humanely treating ducks and geese or do I care about tasty livers? good question...

Posted by discwiz at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I think everyone knows my love-hate relationship with mushrooms. I love to hate them. They are gross. For kicks, ask Brent how he used to fry a pound of mushrooms in college and then eat them in my room to torture me.

However, as I get older and continue experimenting with more and more recipes/ingredients/ideas, I feel it is my duty to use mushrooms more in my cooking. So, last night I made frizzled shiitakes with sugar snap peas. It turned out to be delicious.

I thinly sliced the shiitakes and fried them for about 3 minutes in a mix of olive oil and vegetable oil. I blanched the sugar snap peas, then tossed both of those with some whole wheat rotini, topping it off with some of the remaining oil drizzled all over. The oil tasted a bit salty and had mushroom flavor, but not in a bad way. The mushrooms, in some respects, tasted a bit like bacon... that was a little odd, but delicious.

Anyway, each week I have been making a new dish with mushrooms and I think I liked this one the best. It was super easy and really yummy.

Posted by discwiz at 11:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I just bought a box of these to try out as a lunch snack. Jason gets the strawberry, I get the vanilla. They are really good! They are light crispy small cracker like snacks that have visible oats and puffed rice.

I.. ahem... borrowed the picture from Mr. Breakfast and agree with his assessment. I don't buy snacks at the checkout line, but do tend to buy them on road trips from convenience stores. I would definitely buy these instead of other unhealthy snacks and suspect Kelloggs could make a bunch of money if these were put right next to chips on the shelves. These are great because they are healthier than most chips, are low in calories (only 90 per pack), and have a good sweetness to them. Give them a shot, I think you'll agree.

Posted by discwiz at 1:06 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

As you all know, I've been sick and it has been a really really long week. My vendor came into town to fix many problems we were having and it wasn't going smoothly.... so, with the threat of snow and the stressful week, I decided a pasta dinner was in order.

I was in the mood for some of those refrigerated tortellini and vodka sauce. We went over to harris teeter and checked out the situation. They have new Whole Wheat Tortellini made by the Monterey Pasta Company. We decided to give it a shot. It turned out to be very good. I mixed a few of the flavors of tortellini and served them with vodka sauce that i doctored up with some sun dried tomatoes and spices. Overall, definitely hit the spot. Give them a shot...

btw, i understand i have the colon of steel with my 30+ grams of fiber a day... beware if you don't normally eat very much fiber when you eat these

Posted by discwiz at 9:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

it's been a verrrry long week. our successful system maybe isn't as successful as we thought and i have worked many long days. during those long days i was stuck in a closed room with two co-workers who have sick kids at home. the co-workers were also sick... so, of course, i got sick. i started feeling bad wednesday, felt really really bad yesterday, but had to work anyway. today, i feel really bad again and have developed a fun sneeze, but i had the opportunity to stay home. so, here i am.

the good news is that since i'm home, i am able to try one of the sampler tea bags The Republic of Tea always sends in the mail. I'm drinking the Wild Blueberry and it is pretty delicious. I highly recommend it.

Posted by discwiz at 11:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving! We had tons of turkey, tons of football, tons of wine, tons of boggle, and tons of desserts! We also took our Christmas Card picture... anyone else go through this with their family?

Posted by discwiz at 12:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

i was reading slashfood and read this article about Body Sushi in the K Lounge in Chicago.

i think it's gross, but now know where jason probably wants to go on vacation...

Posted by discwiz at 3:58 PM | Permalink | Comments (3)

A co-worker just brought me over a cherry hershey kiss.... it was very bizarre. it tasted just like a cherry cordial, so I suppose if you like that sort of thing then you would think it's delicious.

Posted by discwiz at 3:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

I got bored of lessons learned. The truth is that I learned too many to type. So, I'm moving on to food. mmmm...foooood..

last night i made tostadas. not very fancy... basically flat tacos. as a base, i used a tostada recipe from Wegman's Menu magazine. The Menu magazine calls for lots of specific Wegman's brand products and I usually substitute. It called for Wegman's smoky black bean dip. so, i used trader joe's smoky black bean dip. Wow! it was really delicious, especially when paired with avocados. i think it would be a nice change to use it as a veggie dip... after eating a tostada, i just dipped the lettuce and avocados anyway.

Posted by discwiz at 12:39 PM | Permalink | TrackBacks (0)