Wings!

So. I like wings. Chicken wings, specifically. There are a couple of places that are supposed to have good reviews, according to the internets; and places I don't want to forget.

1. Archie Moore's Bar & Restaurant 15 Factory Lane, Milford, CT 06460
2. Side Street Grille 15 Dickerman Street, Hamden, CT 06518-2301

That is all

Walnut Beach Creamery

So I was reading an article and learned that Walnut Beach Creamery is one of the top 10 ice cream shops in CT. I'm not sure what that ranking is based on, but I would like to go there to find out.

Chex Mix Recipes

While on the drive to Vermont a while back we got to talking about Chex mix, and I decided to search the interweb for recipes. Why make it at home when I can buy it at the grocery store? Because it's better. I remember my mom making it when I was a kid, and it's best when fresh. You can also customize the seasonings and snacking goods. If you take a look at the recipes on the Chex website you'll find upwards of 50 variations on the original mix. As for the add-ins, Banik can add bagel chips to his, and I can have peanuts in mine. I hadn't heard of this until about 15 minutes ago, but apparently Cheerios are also a common addition we'll have to try.

So on the Chex website the (half recipe, interestingly enough) "Original Chex Party Mix" says:

3 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
3/4 teaspoon seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 cups Corn Chex® cereal
1 1/2 cups Rice Chex® cereal
1 1/2 cups Wheat Chex® cereal
1/2 cup mixed nuts
1/2 cup bite-size pretzels
1/2 cup garlic-flavor bite-size bagel chips
or regular-size bagel chips, broken into 1-inch pieces

Heat oven to 250°F. In large bowl, mix cereals, nuts, pretzels and bagel chips; set aside. In ungreased 13x9-inch pan, melt butter in oven. Stir in seasonings. Gradually stir in cereal mixture until evenly coated. Bake 45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. Spread on paper towels to cool, about 15 minutes. Store in airtight container.

BUT I know that bagel chips weren't in any Chex mix I had as a kid, and I'm pretty sure they were a rather recent addition. Something there is wonky.

So I found a "Real Original Chex Party Mix" based on the recipe off of a 1950s Chex box that says:

1/2 cup butter or margarine
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1-1/4 teaspoons seasoned salt
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
3 cups Wheat Chex square cereal
2 cups Rice Chex square cereal
1-1/2 cups peanuts
1-1/2 cups small pretzel rods

Preheat oven to 275 degrees F. Melt butter in a shallow pan. Stir in Worcestershire sauce, seasoned salt, and garlic salt (not garlic powder). Add Wheat Chex, Rice Chex, nuts (peanuts, pecans or cashews), and pretzel rods. Mix until all pieces are coated with the butter mixture. Place on a shallow baking pan with sides. Bake for 40 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes.

AND THEN I looked at the comments for that recipe and learned that allegedly "Corn chex didn't come out until 1958. The 1952 recipe was wheat and rice chex, worcestershire, butter, nuts, salt and garlic salt. Seasoned salt and corn chex were added in the late 1950s."

So really, I'm not sure if anyone has the original recipe, but these are a good starting point. Now all I need is a real oven in which to try them.

Coffee An' Donut Shop

I have to thank one of my coworkers for tipping me off about this place. Apparently Coffee An' Donut Shop is so spectacular that its reputation preceeds it, and after a couple visits I can kind of see why. Amusingly enough, they're old-fashioned and don't seem to have a website, so they must have enough confidence in their preparations to rely on word-of-mouth and on earning features in newspapers and on local attraction websites.

After we talked about it at work I stopped in and got the three basic types of donuts to try (glazed, cinnamon sugar, powdered sugar), which I then took back to work to cut into quarters and pass around to my favourite tasters. (They were good enough that we got a dozen of each for an office birthday party the next week.) The glazed donuts are from the school of the chewier, doughier type of donut, while the sugared ones are both cake donuts. They also have chocolate cake donuts with plain glaze and several other special donuts that I haven't tried yet.

They aren't Krumpe's, but they're pretty damn good. Certainly among the best that we've tried up here.

No knead bread

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/081mrex.html?_r=2&scp=1&sq=no-knead%20bread&st=cse

No-Knead bread recipe I want to try one day.

Saurkraut - Day 0

The inaugural run of saurkraut has been started. Once we got through all the sanitizing procedures it was even kind of fun.

Because we can't do anything new at a reasonable scale we began with 4 heads of cabbage totaling 17.52 pounds, and after removing the outer leaves and core it was probably down 2 or 3 pounds. This was shredded (thank goodness for salad shooters) and liberally mixed with kosher salt, about 13-15 tablespoons we think.
We didn't think to photograph the cabbage heads at the beginning, but here's everything shredded and salted and packed into the crock. It takes up less space than we expected, but honestly it's still more than we know what to do with. Planning ahead ftw.
And here is Shade beside the 6 gallon-ish crock for scale. This was before he decided that cabbage was not made of pork or cheese and therefore beneath his notice.

The cabbage is now weighted down with a plate and a gallon ziplock containing salt water; by tomorrow night it should have released enough water to submerge itself in brine. The crock has been lidded and placed under Banik's desk where the AC register will keep it relatively cool during the pickling process.

My hands smell like cabbage and bleach, and I think it's time for bed.

SaurKraut

The Real Stuff

Well, this weekend, while on the way to the Round-Hill Highland Games, we stopped at a yard sale. At this yard sale we found three items.

Item the First: A silver tea box with a lion engraved on it. enLethe liked this a lot, so we got it. What will we use it for? Probably put Splenda packets out in the open- they'll look a lot nicer.

Item the Second: A Carnival glass bowl. It's a smokey, silvery glass, with a nice iridescent sheen in blues, purples, and reds. It has a rose motiff, and 3 legs. It's nice. I think the patterns is called, "Imperial Open Rose."

Item the Third: An earthenware crock. It must be at least 5 gallons, with a lid. A small chip or two hidden on the underside of the lid. Great condition, otherwise.


So, the plan? Take the 4 giant heads of cabbage we just happen to have and make some home made, real, live saurkraut.

Let's see if it'll be tasty!

Here are three possible source-recipes:

Alton Brown
Wild Fermentation
Random

pancakes

Every year we go through the agonizing cycle of "What to get Kris for Xmas." I don't particularly want anything, I say not to get my anything or to make a donation somewhere, and then I get things that I have to figure out how to give away.

Now, if you can figure out what makes that stormtrooper pancake, however, that would be a good gift. I'd keep it forever. Not that Darth Vader pancake, mind you; that one is ugly and only there for the novelty of it. Just the stormtrooper one. Please.

New Haven Food carts!

http://www.slashfood.com/2010/04/27/rolling-with-new-haven-food-carts/#axzz0myJOFf7o

Well

We're home owners now, for very loose definitions of 'owners.' We have a house, with a deed with our names on it, and we have the debt to go with it. So that's what makes us homeowners, right?

We should be moving in a couple of weeks- after the contracts finish a few things that are best completed before we actually get there.

Huzzah.

so we needed somewhere to put pictures...

This is from the Kitchen & Bath Ideas website, which is a product of Better Homes & Gardens.
I like it because it's a nice way to use a very shallow space for display and/or storage.