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The Cookwise Project

So here is the new project that I've hinted about. I'm going to be cooking my way through Cookwise, Shirley Corriher's book about the how's and why's of cooking. It's a geek's cookbook full of scientific explanations for everything you ever wanted to know about cooking.

The Cookwise Project will be a chronicle of my journey through Cookwise. Each month I'll be focusing on a new chapter and going through the recipes. I'm not going to publish recipes from the book on this site, but I will list the recipes I cook from the book. Anything I develop inspired by the book will be published here. Each month will feature a new chapter from the book. I'll start with chapter one in January covering bread, partially because the first chapter seems like a good place to start and also because I'm obsessed with bread. The rest of the chapters will be shuffled around because I refuse to handle the fruit/vegetable chapter in March -- it will be the last part of the project covered in July.

I'm hoping this will be a learning experience as well as facilitate building a collection of original recipes. As some of the chapters contain over 60 recipes, I won't be able to cook everything in the book, although I'm going to try to cook as many as possible. Sarah says I can't dramatically alter our grocery budget which will eliminate some of the recipes, living in Missouri will also further limit what is available at various times of the year.

I've wanted this cookbook for quite some time, but didn't get it for one reason or another. The opportunity to buy my own Christmas gift was the perfect chance. Nobody managed to guess what it was in the game of 20 questions. Sarah says that's because I misleadingly answered yes to "Is it a tool?" As far as I'm concerned it is a tool. A tool for smart cooking.

Pictures from Christmas with Sarah's Family

We celebrated Christmas in Chillicothe on the 23rd before driving to Iowa. I've got internet access in the lobby of our hotel which lets me bring this image to you.

We made a carmel apple pie with a crust in the style of Alton Brown's tender/flakey crust. The recipe will be posted sometime in the near future.

Off to the barren winterland

Sarah and I leave at noon today to drive to her parents' house we'll do Christmas there tomorrow and then leave early Wednesday to meet my family in Cameron for the ardous drive to NW Iowa.

I beg you, if you know of good food or public WiFi in NW Iowa please let me know. They say there is high-speed internet access in the lobby of our hotel, but I asked if it was wireless and the woman acted like I spoke another language.

I may be able to post tonight or tomorrow morning, but if I don't get too have a wonderful holiday. I'll be back home on Sunday. Oh, and eat something tasty for me.

Updated Design & New Project

I've updated the design of the blog in preparation for a new project I'm going to be starting after Christmas. The project will entail a cooking extravaganza and Sarah tells me that I can't really extend beyond our normal food budget so it's going to take awhile.

You can help support the effort by buying something from the great folks at Powell's Books and by clicking on any ads that I may end up putting on the site.

I have to wait until after Christmas before I can fully divulge the project details. I can't go into it yet because it involves the Christmas gift I bought for myself. Why you may ask did I buy a gift for myself? Well let's just say it's one of my mom's wacky holiday ideas, buy a gift for yourself then we'll play 20 questions. Like I said, one of my mom's wacky holiday ideas. It's all part of the Iowa Christmas fun.

French Cooking in 10 Minutes

Sarah got me this 1930 Edouard de Pomiane book for Christmas. I highly recommend it. I say this without having cooked anything from the book, but it looks great. It comes with a recommendation from MFK Fisher, so it has to be good. The general notion is that with proper planning (and simple menus) it is possible to cook a multi-course meal in just 10 minutes. Meals that would be appropriate if you came home for lunch. A lot of the recipes are for one, so you would need to adjust if cooking for more people, but who says you can't make yourself French food for lunch.

Here is a sample menu:
- Velout soup with tarragon
- Chicken sauted with mushrooms
- Green salad
- Cheese
- Cream puff

There you have a five course meal which theoretically could be prepared in 10 minutes. The recipes all include tips for speedy preparation.

The book is also well suited for those of us living in areas where fresh produce is not available year round (there are only a few things I think ship well enough to eat out of season) because in 1930 if something wasn't in season it wasn't available fresh. The recipes call for canned goods, many of which can probably be substituted with frozen if you so desire. I'll let you know how some frozen substitutions go.

Hair Dryer BBQ Warning

So when I got home from work today Sarah told me that I am no longer allowed to use her hair dryer in conjunction with the grill. Apparently using it near the smoke made her hair smell like BBQ today. I say it's worth it for the food, she disagrees. I'll be buying a new hair dryer soon.

Christmas Plans

My family is going to be going to Spencer, IA (we're staying at Lake Okoboji) for Christmas. It's where my mom grew up and she wants to go back for the holidays, even though we only have one relative who still lives there. There was much argument to no avail.

My main concern isn't going to Iowa, it's the complete lack of food. When we've travelled in the past we've gone somplace that will have an asortment of good food, this year we're in NW Iowa in a town that is 100% closed on Christmas. We'll be going to the relative's house for Christmas dinner, so at least that will be covered.

Does anybody know of good restaurants in that part of the world?

Smoked Pork Chops

It's sort of been a tradition for us to host a New Year's Eve party and this year will be no exception. This year MU will also be playing Arkansas in the Independence Bowl on New Year's Eve, so we'll be having a bowl game/New Year's Eve party. In honor of the trouncing the Razorbacks should receive we'll be serving BBQ pork.

I decided that tonight would be a good night to do a test run of the smoking. We don't have a smoker so I had to make due with a Weber kettle grill. Overall I think it worked out pretty well. Four nicely smoked pork chops took about 90 minutes at temperatures varying from 185 - 230° (the dips were mainly caused by my opening the grill for additional fuel/wood).

Here's the setup: I started with 10 scorching hot pieces of charcoal (using the Alton Brown blow dryer method) and added 6 unlit pieces to a basket pushed against one side of the grill. The other side of the grill was occupied by a 9x13 baking dish full of water. All of the vents were wide open (I tried keeping the bottom one mostly closed, but the temperature wouldn't stay above 190° unless it was open). I kept track of the temperature using a probe thermometer dangled through the upper vent of the grill. I added two pieces of charcoal each time the temperature dipped to 200° (I checked every 10-15 minutes).

The pork chops came out quite well, although they took longer than I had hoped to reach my standard 140° pork internal temperature (although the FDA would tell me this is not safe I've never gotten sick). I think the key is not losing heat from lid openings. Next time around I'll just slide the lid over to expose the coal basket leaving the rest of the grill covered rather than opening it all the way. I used this method for the last coal addition and the temperature only dropped by 5° rather than the 15° for previous additions.

The next smoking challenge will be a large Boston butt, how big will depend on the number of RSVPs.

Return of the King

Return of the King opened yesterday. A group of us are hoping to avoid the insanity of opening day by going today. So far everybody I know who has seen it says it's amazing. Big shock there. This post really just serves the purpose of illustrating that I'm now current in my postings and can return to my regular slackitude.

Gas Station Food (Oklahoma Joe's)

So I know I wrote about the gas station turkey in my Thanksgiving post, but I had to write this as well. I've been trying to eat at Oklahoma Joe's Barbecue during several different trips to Kansas City. Last week I finally got my chance. I did feel a bit silly eating ribs at 4:00 PM knowing that a snow storm was coming, and I had a two hour drive ahead of me, but I was not the only person who thought 4:00 was an acceptable time for BBQ.

If you are ever in Kansas City you've got to eat at Oklahoma Joe's. They have the best ribs I have ever tasted. Please don't be scared that the restaurant is in a Texaco station. It is the stick by which I will be measuring BBQ in the future. Of course I'll have to go back and sample the menu in more detail (the troubles I go to in the name of good food).

Once again I'm saddened by the lack of good BBQ in what will be my new home (Springfield, MO). Somebody please correct me here if I'm wrong. But it does give me hope that if at sometime I can afford to open a restaurant it just might be a BBQ joint in a gas station.