They ruin my life. literally.
I've been sick in bed for the past day. Now, allergies can't take the credit for all of this (have a bit of a head cold), but when I took allergy medicine this morning, my congestion stopped. sooo... I'm blaming part of my sickness on allergies. And allergies have ruined my mornings for the past month. I'm a bit fed up.
You know why birds are stupid? Those nasty creatures in the dryer vent above my bedroom (who occasionally decide to pop in for a chat) are still working on their nest in the vent. For the past few days, they have attempted to bring in large BRANCHES to add to their nest. Surprisingly enough, they don't fit! So in their attempts to stuff the branches (what they apparently think are small sticks) into the vent, they fall onto my balcony railing. I have three branches now stuck to my balcony railing. Birds are so ridiculously stupid.
I have a few questions I would like to toss out to my fellow bloggers...I have spent the entire morning stalking food blogs, and I'm hoping others are stalking my blog as well (for some unknown reason). That way, I can get a few of these questions answered...
As I mentioned in my last blog, I will be attempting various rhubarb recipes this spring. Before I attempt these once again, I need to get a few things straight. Last year, I purchased stalks of rhubarb from the farmer's market. In each stalk, 75% was green, the other 25% pink. All of the rhubarb recipes I've seen have pink rhubarb in them. Did I get the wrong rhubarb? Do I have to let it ripen a few days for it to turn pink? Does it even turn pink when it ripens? One thing I know for sure, I will not be cooking with green rhubarb, as I'm pretty sure that's where the vile taste came from last year. I'm hoping I get this question answered soon or that this Saturday a farmer will hand me a whole bundle of all- pink rhubarb stalks. I'll use whichever one comes first.
Secondly, what the heck are shallots?? I can never find them in the grocery store. I'm beginning to think they are a food myth. For some reason, I think they are onion-like, so whenever a recipe calls for them, I usually double the scallion quantity. I made a breakfast pizza about a week ago and did this same thing... doubled the scallions because I didn't know what a shallot was. Turns out, the pizza was a little too oniony, but it was still fantastic. seriously so good. (I used a store bought pizza crust instead of making my own, cutting down on about 12 hours of prep work... only took me 10 minutes to make)
This is probably the most random post I've typed.
The term shallot is used to describe two different Allium species of plant. The French gray challot or griselle, which has been considered to be the "true shallot" by many, is Allium oschaninii, a species that grows wild from Central to Southwest Asia. Other varieties of shallot are Allium cepa var. aggregatum (multiplier onions), also known as A. ascalonicum.[citation needed] In Australia, the term can also refer to Scallion, and the term eschalot is used to refer to the shallot described in this article.
ReplyDeleteThe botanical name of shallot is Allium ascalonicum Linn and it belongs to the family Alliaceae. Indian names are Ek-kanda-lasun or Gandana (Hindi, Marwari and Punjabi) or Gundhun (Bengali).
i know nothing about rhubarbs, except that i like rhubarb jelly. honestly, as a cook myself, i am willing to admit, i don't even know what they look like.
ReplyDeletei am with you in thinking that shallots and scallions are interchangable. therefore, seeing as how i am not a big fan (read: no fan at all) of scallions, i just omit it all together.
i'm no help. sorry.
i wish we had known each other when we bothed lived in fay. we could have cooked together all the time. we both might have had trouble fitting through the doors.
Hey Natalie! Shallots - they are found in WalMart easily (try near the onions and potatoes) They are like small yellow/brown onions - they have a sweeter taste than regular onions (like red/purple)...
ReplyDeletehttp://homecooking.about.com/od/foodstorage/a/shallotstorage.htm
Hope that helps...are you going to the Farmers Market on Saturday?? We are going to try to make it early! Don't know what they will have out this early - but I'm still excited. I can at least get my bouquet of flowers!
UMMMM BTW - that breakfast pizza looks heavenly - so when are you making breakfast? I'll bring the OJ and champagne and (when it gets quite a bit warmer) we can sit in the beautiful green grass and watch the birds (did I say BIRDS - WHOOPS - haha!!)
thaaaaanks sauce boss. definitely helped?
ReplyDeleteKarly,
never had rhubarb jam but it sounds fantastic... I think I like all kinds of jam. jam is just too fun. I love it.
and seriously... we missed each other by a year. I bet if we pooled our cooking minds together, we could be top chefs. and yes, really fat. My sister said she won't cook anything I blog about because it looks too fatty ha ha.. oops.
Brandy,
thanks soooo much. I'll look for the shallots next time I'm there! and yes, definitely doing the farmer's market this saturday. not quite sure how early though... depends on how friday night goes:). I'm hoping they at least have rhubarb (can you tell I'm obsessed with this project?). And PLEASE let's do the breakfast date. I bet the boys (well, tad. brad gets up early all the time ha) wouldn't mind getting up early for that pizza and the mimosas!! minus the birds part!
Will most likely be in Fayetteville next Saturday and sunday. Can we plan this breakfast then? I will contribute if I can borrow someone's over. I can make a cinnamon roll cake.. or just homemade cinnamon rolls.
ReplyDeleteThat sounds AMAZING!! Let's do it!
ReplyDeleteTell me about the allergy thing! I want to cut my nose off every year this time!
ReplyDeleteI am very interested in how this rhubarb project goes, because, like Karly, I can't even say what it looks like and have never had it. I think too many people had bad experiences like yours last year that I always heard it was bad. I will be interested in how it goes....
Again, like Karly, I have the same attitude towards shallots......they are approximately equal to scallions which is no good!
I vote this summer we have a lake weekend and enjoy lots of these cooking projects!
PS You have also turned me on to Smitten Kitchen! I really like it:)
ReplyDeleteYou've got my vote on the lake idea! That is a glorious idea...
ReplyDeleteand I'm sickly obsessed with smitten kitchen so I'm glad you like it too:)
matt is miserable with his allergies...I feel like I am living with an invalid...
ReplyDeleteanywho...I was just thinking that about shallots because I made turkey burgers last night that called for them I just omitted them all together!
and I have never had rhubarb so sorry no help there.
come visit and make me and matt food!
ha you know I'm not surprised at all that are you allergy free, erin. poor matt... tell him to go to walgreens and get Wal-phed (the pharmacist has it) works really well for me.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'll come cook for you, but you probably won't eat anything I make. It's a bit on the fatty side, according to erin's standards. I bet matt would eat my cooking though :)
i already told you this in person, but shallots look like dark garlic. haha
ReplyDeletelooks like i was a little late to the party with that information though.
There are eggs on that pizza. That is all.
ReplyDelete