Beatboxer adds different sounds as if adding ingredients in his kitchen 2

O.k, hopefully you haven't seen this yet? I just found this while searching for baking related diggs. I love music and beatbox and baking --- this dude combines all three of my favorites...o.k AND improve! He is in an apron and has a kitchenaide in front of him. Part Monthy Python , part Martha, part B-BoyyZ.

A must see! The incredibly original and talented beatboxer Beardyman presents a hilarious routine where he "bakes" a beatbox routine from the different sound "ingredients" he has in his repertoire. Amazing, incredible, and all those digg-worthy adjectives!

digg story For more Kitchen related You-Tube :

Watch the latest videos on YouTube.com

Review : Morimoto - The New Art of Japanese Cooking 4

For me this is an orgasmic book of unmeasured proportions. I have loved Iron Chef. I have loved Japanese cooking and finally the two have merged and come full circle. On viewing the book it's self - wow. A nice presentation. A heavy slightly over sized cookbook. 

Morimoto: The New Art of Japanese Cooking.

Morimoto

The editing of this book is very well done. Nice graceful modern designs. Page after page of glossy step by step images and techniques, and notations on traditional Asian ingredients and how that translates to using and accessing them (or a finding suitable substitutions) in the US . If I ever wanted to publish a cookbook, it would be in this style.

This book showcases why Chef Morimoto^w is at the axis of a foodie empire, in this creative and intuitive take on Japanese cuisine. When I read this cookbook, I felt like the foodie version of Being John Malkovich , as this book allows you to peer inside the thoughts and actions of this culinary genius.

In relation to skill level, I would recommend this book to people who have at least an intermediate knowledge of culinary techniques. The beginning home cook might not know how to utilize or apply the techniques Chef Morimoto has outlined in this book.

It would be wise to do some further research on Japanese Culinary techniques also, as this book can only highlight certain facets of the cuisine itself and not act as a reference manual or course book on Japanese Cuisine as a whole.

If you have ever had an inkling of adoration for Asian style cuisine, or are awestruck at the complexities of the full spectrum of Professional Japanese Culinary , as I am, you would enjoy this book.

Highlights of this book include:

• An in depth look at how the Japanese chef works his knife magic to create beautiful Sashimi ^w and Sushi ^w works of art out of various ingredients - parts of fish, Octopus , and Various Vegetables .
• Recipes that are full of depth and charisma.
• Master recipes of various sauces and marinades.
• Text about the origins and importance of ingredients utilized in Japanese cuisine.
• Beautiful photography displaying the frame by frame procedures for each culinary technique, and the eloquent plate presentation for each recipe.
• A glossary of Japanese terms , as well as a source guide for obtaining specialty ingredients.

Overall this book is a wonderful culinary journey that enables the reader to cultivate a better understanding of chef Morimoto, Japanese cuisine and the culinary revelations that Morimoto has contributed to todays culinary field. I loved this book!

Trace Produce : Come and Meet Your Farmer 2

This is the farmer, that worked the land in Oregon, that planted the seed onions, that sprouted the fully grown onions, that I bought at my local grocer, that I fixed in my dinner, and fed to my family.

Grower: Frahm Fresh Produce

Frahm Farms is located in Eastern Oregon, 8 miles Sth West of Parma, Idaho along the Fertile Snake River Valley. It is owned and operated by Treveor and Rod Frahm. Rod is a second generation farmer, and his son Trevor is a third generation farmer. Frahm Farms grows Yellow, Red, and White onions, along with many other crops.

Field: FRYLHME GPS: N 43 56.38 W 116 59.58 Planted: 3/10/2007 to 4/15/2007 Harvested: 8/25/2007 to 8/25/2007

These onions are a Spanish Sweet Yellow Onion. They are a good all purpose onion, great for cooking or eating fresh. After harvest, these onions are kept in air storage facilities, which keep them at a constant cool temperature until packing.

As environmental challenges threaten our daily lives - talk about living sustainably,
and devouring foods that come from our backyards becomes an ever important topic. That means less fuel consumption, less packaging made from oil based chemicals, less waste.

One of the biggest advantages of buying organic is no pesticide residue in or on your veg's and fruit. Onions are one of the items listed on the "lowest amount of pesticide residue" list. You can find out more about which standard grocery bought fruits and vegetables rate highest or lowest by going to the Food News website and clicking on http://www.foodnews.org/walletguide.php

Have you ever wanted to know where your ingredients come from? Apart from those times when you can go to an organic farm/co-op in your community , or choose from your own garden.

As our food costs continue to increase, sometimes the price of organic goods surpass some budgets and could be considered a luxury. So what happens when you are just shopping at the standard grocer?

If you look at some tags on your produce, you might notice a tag with bold green text that reads "Trace Produce.com" . On the under side of this tag is a url and a USDA Id number.

Go to the website and enter your ID# , you will magically be whisked off to a page full of info, and YouTube videos of : Your farmer / field produce was grown / packing info. There is even a geo navigational map , via Google Maps, showing you directly where the farm is positioned.

You'll find my onions' info here.

And there are also recipe links corresponding to your type of produce. In this case it's ONIONS.

My Foodie-sense Is Tingling : Greasemonkey for Culinary Pros? 1

What is Greasemonkey you might ask? Greasemonkey is a plugin for the Firefox web browser. Note: If you use Internet Explorer, you can use the IE7 Pro Compatibility add-in to permit some Greasemonkey scripts. If you use Safari, you may be able to run some scripts using the Creammonkey plugin. Opera is also known for being able to run a few scripts on their own.

Greasemonkey allows you to change how your favorite pages behave and look. There are many scripts that have already been written, and if you know javascript you can easily create your own.The Greasemonkey install on firefox is very easy .

You can find the Greasemonkey console,which shows all your scripts, under the "Tools" link on the browser menu bar. The scripts are editable. All you need to do is click on a script from the list and click on the edit button --- to access the script code, which allows for customization (in some cases) or bug fixes (if the script author is not keeping tabs on updating.)

Userscripts.org is a repository to download and install Greasemonkey scripts. You can find a script to pimp virtually anything ---blogger, flickr, gmail, craigslist ect. There is a tag function on userscripts.org for most scripts but unfortunately script authors do not always tag. So I actually scrolled through most of the 300 pages...yikes.

I can't believe I missed out on so many greasemonkey scripts lately. I LOVE firefox and Greasemonkey is icing on the geeky-optimizing-browser cake.

Speaking of cake, wouldn't it be great to create a greasemonkey script that would use specific formulas that apply to bakers or chefs or serious foodies?!

I am talking about calculators to compute formulations for : Specific gravity,Baker's percent, Turn-over rate of frying oil, Desired Dough Temp, Variances of Mixer per Qt = in F degrees , ect.

Even better --- have temp converters , and an editable interface to add special reference snippets that are pertinent to you (said foodie). I know there are alot of conversion widgets at Chef2chef.net ---It would be nice to see some of them hacked into the widget.

I think that the best way to showcase this widget would to code it to appear as a slide-in menu in the corner of your browser window. The calculators /converters would be linked via small icons, and would feature a link to your reference library (which would be text files, housed in a folder on your pc) There would be a link for "grab formula/ recipe", also.

This would be a great utility to edit formulas found on the web, on the fly. And the best part is that you can take firefox with you anywhere --- just copy it to a flash/thumb drive, and plug into a computer away from home. All your scripts / plug-ins /bookmarks are contained in the firefox interface, which you load via the thumb drive.

Oh, how utterly SWEET!

I will try to compose something out of code and see if I can get the ball - I mean the script rolling.

How exciting!

Run your tooltip over the screenshot to see what subject the screenshot covers. click on the screenshot to view it's pic page on flickr; or click "larger" link to view original.

Greasemonkey
Screen Shots




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Cook Book Meme - Long over due! 0

I have been devoting my time to school and other things, like Blogs That Flickr ,
sad to say even my photoblog has gotten more attention than RC. I'd like to say thanks for those that have added me to their links, and even deb has featured me as "site of the week" (*blushes*).

Thanks for the comments on my photography. My camera has broken recently, so it may be a while before I can collect funds to repair or buy another camera to take new pictures. If you wish to help out , visit my photoblog (link above) and click on "about" , there you will find links to donate or purchase pictures.All proceeds go to camera repair.

I was tagged in July with a cook book même by Food Chronicler. This is my first même. Sorry I am so late in delivery.

1. Total number of cookbooks I own: Well not nearly as many as I'd like. Only 30, I have just started collecting them in the last year or so.

2. Last cookbook I bought:

Bugalli on PastaOk ,I am a thrifty person when it comes to everything (I am a poor college student) so I frequent dusty little used book stores searching for deals. I bought this for $10 a couple weeks ago. To quote Jamie Oliver (a.k.a Naked Chef) on his thoughts on pasta, more specifically ravioli :

" They are sexy special little things, they're like little presents..."

I feel Pasta is rustic, simple and palate pleasing. For a pasta artisan to create the perfect zen like experience it must involve care and the right ingredients. I love pasta books.
3. Last food/cook book I read:

Bugalli on Pasta

4. Five (cook) books that mean a lot to me:

Cooking The Indian Way (1967) I found this book for $1 and It was such a find. There are a lot of traditional Indian entrees; desserts and appetizers. Plus it offers translations of Indian cooking terms. I love Indian food! I can envision the people who purchased this book in 1967, into a minimalist pad draped in and overflowing with orange color schemes with brass accents, no funiture just floor pillows and ambiance provided by soft citar music on the record player.




The Cake Bible
The Cake Bible .This book is fabulous and I recommend it to anyone who is interested in cake assembly/design- especially wedding cakes. The author offers really great tips for assembling wedding cakes and trouble shooting; her formulations in this book offer several types of buttercreams and ganache; even poured fondant. It was the book I referred to when doing my first wedding cake.




In The Sweet Kitchen
In The Sweet Kitchen One of the first baking books I have seen that isn't filled with a lot of what I call fluff (author quotes, full page photographs etc). It is filled with formulas that have great ingredients, and a good offering of history and info on the ingredients. When I think of baking for Christmas or other holidays, I search through formulas here first.


Professional Baking
Professional Baking This book is definitely a great one, with plenty of reference material; formulas and techniques. I will never get rid of it. All formulas use bakers percent. I really want the newest edition though --- it's even better!


The Professional Pastry Chef
The Professional Pastry Chef I received the 3rd edition as a graduation present from my uncle. He always supported my baking dreams whole heartedly. This book is indispensable. There are so many formulations and techniques outlined here. This has to be my favorite pastry book. The photographs are superb ---

5. Who would you like to see fill this out in their blogs:

J.T of Pastry Life. He has frequented here since I started this blog. He is always picking up some new culinary book...and now that he has graduated I wonder if this will start a new surge of buying needs ; )

The Culinary Equipment Fairies...Blessed me With a Baking bounty! 0

queue the "sugar plum fairy theme"..... The curtain draws, the house lights flicker and fade. In front of you - a stage, the set painted and built to resemble a porch?

As I had described in earlier posts, I had posted a blurb in the "wanted" section of craig's List . Mentioning my need to find culinary/baking things, used, at a discounted price.

Because let's face it, being a student is not cheap, but let alone having to pay childcare on top of the normal expenses is even more devastating to finances.

The response I got was great. A local caterer was willing to sell me ALLOT of baking things for $25 total. [You can read about what I got here.... ] I had been using my Cuisinart Custom prep Food Processor , that I got 3 years ago for a wedding gift, to mix. It works fine for non finicky doughs.

But I had wanted a kitchen aide for a long time. Money was not playing into my favor. Someone offered to sell me one for $50 dollars. [You can read about that here...]

Someone who wanted to remain anonymous, sent me an email. She had offered to give me a copy of Professional Baking , for free. So I was not going to turn that down. My daughter was ill so I had my husband go pick it up. And when he got there, there was a box on the porch that said "Have Fun Amber!", the box was full of cool things :

a Stoneware loaf pan; A Black n' Decker "Handy chopper" ; A wire cake cutter ; 4 other baking related books ; 3 large cake molds ; A set of Canape molds ; Unopened - artichoke pesto, almond paste,marzipan, poppy seeds ;A large unopened bag of instant yeast ;a large bag of bay leaves ; A large can of Gum - Tex; A Cream Whipper/filler;

A copy of The Naked Chef - Jamie Oliver ;



A brand new-in box , Zenker "Super Cake Baking Tin - Which I love!

Her generosity blew me away. I was not asking for charity by any means. I had items listed in my post , which if buying brand new , retail for pretty spendy prices. I specifically noted in the post I would like to purchase used items, at a discounted price. And here I was blessed with this baking bounty.

How can I convey how great these culinary equipment fairies are??? We humans tend to get caught up in our own pursuits, forgetting there is a world out there. That there are caring people. It is so easy to feel alone, to feel soured by images we see plastered all over the news & television screen. You almost have to grow a hardened shell, retreat into your own little world, to deflect that.

A Big Thanks To those who have been so kind! Also to my readers, for listening....

(originally blogged March 22nd, 2005)

The Uber Male Ego - On Baking [# 2] 0

"There are certain natural instincts that all men have.
Hunting, gathering, protecting his territory…cooking is not one that you usually
group into this list. I think you would be remiss if you didn’t halfway admit to
yourself that there is something abnormally mannish about Pyrex pans and beating
eggs, though. Baking, I think, is the ninth manly instinct, the one that
directly follows scratching and comes before hot dog eating contests, and the
one that gets overlooked more than any other. So lets just call it what it is:
cooking is manly.

I see them everyday, those masculine chefs that stare
out at me from the covers of their glossy pages in the cooking section. Wolfgang
Puck, Jamie Oliver, Bobby Flay, Jacques Pepin….Julia child's….all of them, with
their meaty muscles and messy hair, all proclaiming for the world to see…I CAN
COOK! LOOK AT ME! They look good on those covers. And then there are the cooking
babes, not your homely mom types of yesteryear’s kitchens. These are pure grade
A fresh meat hotties right out of a sex-laden subliminal Food Network
commercial. They tempt you with their succulent flavors and exotic textures,
Rachel Ray domineering over them all with her toothy grin and golden spatula
saying, bow to me, oh, cooking legions… I am your queen! You will ebb and sway
with every sauce I make, with every crab cake I fry and put in a lovely little
decorative parfait glass over a bed of leafy greens. I can make a complete meal
in under thirty minutes…and it’s not Zataran’s Easy Make Jambalaya, it’s a real
meal! Hahahahaha!

Maybe that’s a bit far, not too far mind you.
Rearranging the cookbook section this last week did make me want to put some
time in the kitchen, so baking does make the In list this week. Time spent
slaving over an open gas flame somehow gets me in touch with those ancient genes
of roasting legs of Wildebeest over crude fires. It’s got to be manly if I do
it, right? Cooking comes in spurts for me and is over with before I even finish
the leftovers, so it’s probably back to Zataran’s next week. It was good while
it lasted. Although, I am fond of the cool little cooking names that all the big
time chef's give themselves. My favorite, is of course, "The Naked Chef",
although I do tend to like "Alton Brown the Science Kitchen Clown" for a chef
name. Since "The Naked Chef" is taken though, I think I'll take The
Promiscuously Nude Chef. That has a nice ring to it and at least makes you want
to tune in to the TV show."

Blogged by Lane : Life and Times in the Fastlane , post : of Cooking and stalin

O.k I love this post. I love the lyrical quality and the words he uses to convey a complete thought in transit. Lane goes to great lengths to describe here. It is honest --- he is not acting macho for anyone. He is simply stating his opinion. Subtle hints of sarcasm . And this post is very masculine. I think quite SEXY!