For the last several months, I’ve been obsessed with baking bread. There’s something really satisfying about making yeast breads. It feels like rediscovering a lost art, and a science. I’ve noticed a trend among people my age and younger to take an interest in things our grandparents did out of necessity. (Note the preponderance of knitting hipsters, for example.) Then again, on another completely different level, it’s just about pleasure. There’s nothing that compares to the smell and taste of fresh-baked bread, and it’s very satisfying to have made that bread from scratch.

For many years prior to my recent obsession, I’ve enjoyed cooking, including baking. But I believed that yeast breads were beyond my ability. After returning from a trip to New York City, I decided that I needed to try my hand at pizza dough. This morphed into a full-blown preoccupation with yeast doughs and bread baking that took hold and hasn’t yet let up, and will probably carry me through at least until Lost begins again next month. What follows are a few practical tips and tricks I’ve learned over the past several months.
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Just so you know, I converted this recipe for Pocky into standard measures below:
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A couple in each category.
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It seems cake making has developed into a pop-culture trend. At least, that’s what I learned channel surfing of the Food Network. When not hosting celebrity chefs, reality shows, or travel programs featuring massive amounts of heart-unhealthy restaurant fare, the subject de jour seems to be cakes (see, e.g., Ace of Cakes). And the whole internet seems to enjoy looking at Cake Wrecks.

But really, this post is just using an excuse to show off a cake that Allison (erstwhile Kulturblogger and commenter) and I created for our three-year-old son. Behold, the robot cake:
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This winter, I discovered the wonders of Abuelita. It’s a Mexican chocolate with a strong cinnamon flavor that can be used to make really great hot chocolate. It’s pretty easy to find at most grocery stores if you look for it. Sometimes it’s where you’d expect to find cocoa, and sometimes it’s with the Hispanic foods.

Yesterday, I adapted one of my favorite chocolate cake recipes using Abuelita instead of semi-sweet baking chocolate, and it turned out great, so I thought I’d share.

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Not really Red Bull Cola, but rather cola made by Red Bull. Given the phenomenal success of their overpriced taurine elixir, it makes sense for Austria-based Red Bull to further attack the soft drinks market. Alas for Herr Mateschitz, I suspect their cola is doomed to fail. Our years of guzzling phosphoric corn-syrup (or worse, artificial sweetener) means that any new cola is unlikely to taste quite right. And that’s the problem with Red Bull Cola. They want it to taste vaguely exotic.* Instead it just tastes…off, like a cheap Walmart copy. And that’s a problem. Still, it’s worth a try, although you may have to live in Nevada to do so. According to the Red Bull website, Red Bull Cola is only available in a select number of European countries and… Las Vegas.

*Red Bull GmbH would have you believe that their cola contains coca leaf, kola nut, lemon/lime, clove, cinnamon, cardamom, pine, corn mint, galangal, vanilla, ginger, mace, cocoa, liquorice, orange, mustard seeds, and caffeine from coffee beans. Oh, and nothing “artificial.”

Best ever Potato Salad (more…)

Best-Ever Oatmeal Chocolate-Chip Cookies (more…)

Fresh Mango Salsa (more…)

Veggie Pasta in Sesame Peanut Sauce (more…)

1) Passion Fruit
2) Raspberries
3) Avocados
4) Huckleberries
5) Peaches

Being self-employed has its perks. Yesterday we had a company party and went to see Ratatouille. While larger tech companies rent out theaters for Pixar movies we could only muster 12 people (five of them being small children) so logistics were limited to simply getting tickets online earlier in the day.

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Hey, I promised to tell all of you guys when our chocolate was for sale. Well we now have them for sale. Right now just the Madagascar bars are for sale but we’ll have the Ocumare at our shipper either the end of this week or beginning of next week.
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1) Snickers
2) Butterfinger
3) Reeses Peanut Butter Cups
4) Twix
5) SKOR

1) Double Double – In-and-Out
2) The $6 Burger – Carl’s Junior
3) The Whopper – Burger King
4) Big Bacon Classic – Wendy’s
5) Sourdough Jack – Jack-in-the-Box

Ever since I posted my updated Diet Coke rankings, I’ve been wondering about the differences between foreign and domestic Coca-Cola. On my most recent vacation, I made a point of bringing home a bottle of Coke Light for comparison purposes. (My Coke Light happened to come from Belize, though I doubt that there’s any difference between Mexican Coke Light and Belizean Coke Light.) (more…)

I bought a Dr. Pepper from the vending machine at work today and noticed that the retro-styled can (pictured to the left, courtesy Wikipedia) has a seal claiming an “authentic blend of 23 flavors.” Indeed, go to DrPepper.com, find the FAQ section, and you’ll be informed that “Dr. Pepper is a unique blend of 23 flavors. The formula for Dr. Pepper is proprietary information.” (Dr. Pepper also has a web-based promotion called “Get23″ centered around the 23 secret flavors. The promotion has to do with finding “flavor icons,” but it won’t reveal what the flavors are. Because they are “you know” a secret.) Apparently, this claim has been a part of Dr. Pepper lore for a long time — something like the Colonel’s Eleven Herbs and Spices, but I was ignorant of it.

So what are the 23 flavors? I’m guessing one is not “cherry-flavored cough syrup,” though “cherry” seems a safe bet. (Vanilla, or some version of vanilla, seems a given, too.) According to Snopes, the company has repeatedly denied the persistant rumor that prune juice is one of the component flavors. Any guesses?

UPDATE: According to AdAge, “Cadbury Schwepps (the owner of the Dr. Pepper brand) spent $5 million on a “mash-up” marketing campaign based on the 23 flavors concept before killing the ads earlier this year.”  Click through the link to see the commercials that never aired.

I love Funyunsâ„¢. They are a deliciously different snack that’s fun!

Funyuns may be fun, but they are also disgusting. They smell like onion-flavored 409â„¢. And they can cut up the roof of your mouth if you’re not careful – like Cap’n Crunchâ„¢. But I love crushing up the final three or four “yuns” in the bag into tiny crunchy cornmeal pieces and tipping the bag on its end so that the yummy, yellow starchy goodness slides right into my mouth. Niiiiiiice. (more…)

New York is the greatest city in the world for pizza. Even the worst street pizza is better than Pizza Hut. There is something so delicious and wonderful about getting a slice of cheese, folding it (because we like our crusts thin here), and feeling the grease drip down our throats. MMMmmmmmm…

Grimaldi’s and Lombardi’s always get the most ink, for good reason (delicious pizza and quaint location), but there are better. My personal favorite is the focaccia de nona from La Villa (right down the street here in Brooklyn). Amazing. We also like grandma’s pizza for its crushed tomatoes and garlic/oil/basil combo from Pizza By The Park a couple blocks further away.

I’ve never been to Chicago and had the deep dish there so I can’t really compare it, but I’m having a difficult time imagining it better than my de nona. And Supergenius, please don’t try to tell me that the super ultimate stuffed-crust cheese explosion from Dominoes is a contender.

Last week I returned home from the grocery store with some rhubarb that I had purchased as an impulse buy. I saw those dark red stalks clustered there in a display near the front of the produce section and decided that I had to have it. I figured I could decide what to make out of my rhubarb once I got it home. Today I washed it and put it together with some recently purchased strawberries and made pie.