TMI Like Food

I do like me some food. And even though it's not Tuesday any more, I'm going to dwell on food for a bit because I like it a lot. I don't like turkey though, so I'll be filling up on side dishes tomorrow. Yay side dishes!

Häagen-Dazs or Ben & Jerry’s?

Häagen-Dazs had this terrific chocolate ice cream once which was made with rare rainforest chocolate or something. I'm just not that big an ice cream fan though. It's too cold. I like Ben & Jerry's, but I might have to give the edge in creamy goodness to the... I just looked it up, and apparently, Häagen-Dazs is from the US, originally. So I'll have to give the edge to the weird name. What were they thinking?

What is always in your refrigerator?

OJ, milk, flour tortillas, and probably butter. Not that I eat butter by the pound, just that I can't think of a time when I haven't had butter. There are other things which frequently make an appearance, and there are usually at least some sorts of vegetable, most notably carrots. I don't keep some things in the fridge.

What’s your worst kitchen disaster?

I made dumplings once for my boss when I had him over to dinner. They... weren't so great. And once, when I was on my own and poor, I had some leftover meatloaf and tried to make pasta sauce with it and a can of tomatoes, but when I tried to put a little pepper in, the top came off and the entire container of pepper dumped into the sauce, which I had been stirring at the time. I tried to pick out most of it, but it was no use. Then I tried to eat it anyway (I was hungry and poor) and nearly threw up, because while I like pepper a lot, this was too much.

What’s your best kitchen success?

Advizor added this one, and I thought it was a good addition. Except that I can't pick out a success story. I'm quite critical of my own food. I once made my mother an entirely vegetarian Indian meal for her birthday, complete with several courses and hand-made naan on a grill outside, which was awesome if I do say so myself, and I do. I cook many things people seem to like. I just don't love any of them more than any other, I guess.

Favorite kitchen gadget?

I'm not a huge gadget-user, but I have some that I do use. I like my zester, although I'm starting to wish I had a microplane for zesting. And I like my immersion blender because I like cream soups, but I don't get to use it that often. I wish I had a standing mixer for dough, but it's expensive and I wouldn't use it that often. I don't have a radish-rose whatchamahoozits though.

What was your last meal? Did you like it?

Stir-fry a la dorm kitchen. Not bad, given the severe limitations. I've often wished I could have a cooking show where I would cook things with extremely limited equipment, like most people have in their kitchens. Improvisation and the use of pans as the lids of pots was the order of the day (no, not the odor of the day).

What’s your favorite cookie?

Anything chocolate. The only cookies I make are chocolate oatmeal raisin. I'm not sharing the recipe with the masses because I don't know where it is at the moment and it's not mine, but I like me some chocolate cookies. I know some people think double chocolate chip is overkill; they are wrong.