Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Ripe Dandelions

I harvested my Dandelions last week for in order to make up some Dandelion Wine!



I'll get back to you in a year and let you know how it tastes. ;)

Happy Drinking!

Monday, May 12, 2008

Eat Off This

Don't buy place mats or tablecloths anymore! Make them!



This craft is easy for kids to do, so the next time you don't have any 4th of July tableware, have them (or yourself) create simple patriotic place mats.

Or not. I just enjoy these sorts of things.

Happy Place Matting!

Thursday, May 8, 2008

Next Food Project...

Making colored cupcakes.

Like these ones....




Thanks zophos for the wicked idea!

Happy Eating!

Tuesday, May 6, 2008

Clarifying Words

pabulum

noun
any substance that can be used as food


place

noun
a particular portion of space, whether of definite or indefinite extent.


alliteration

noun
The repetition of the beginning sounds of words, as in “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers,” “long-lived,” “short shrift,” and “the fickle finger of fate.”

Beltline

The Beltline Bar in Grand Rapids, MI is one of my favorite places to eat because they have the most amazing Brownie Sundae. It is HUGE, and, well, I'm a sucker for lots of chocolate, so I'll leave it at that.

On to the burger I had the other day... a good old fashioned Bacon Cheeseburger (I have a thing with bacon too, mmm mouthwatering).

THE TOPPINGS
American cheese, sheet of lettuce, un-cut dill pickle, and two slices of bacon. I wasn't feeling very green, so I did not try the lettuce or pickle (not a fan of pickles anyway). I can only imagine that the lettuce would get a little soggy after a while seeing as it was in sheet form instead of shredded.

However, the bacon and the cheese were absolutely PERFECT. The cheese was melted onto the burger and it was the most perfectly melted cheese I have seen to this day. There were no places on the burger where there was too much cheese or too little cheese, it may very well have been some sort of spreadable cheese it was so even on the whole burger (it did not, however taste like spreadable cheese, unless there has been a spreadable cheese miracle in the past few months that I know nothing about).

The bacon added crunch to the burger. It was cooked perfectly, there wasn't too much grease on it, and it didn't hang off the bun so that at the end all you had was a couple bacon ends. It complimented the burger so well in this case... simply superb.

THE BUN
A toasted Kaiser, also added some crunch to the burger. It didn't stick to my fingers, it was light and buttery tasting, and fit the burger well. It had some grain on it that you couldn't taste (used to keep the dough from sticking to everything, kind of like flour, but more granulated like sugar). What more can I say? I really enjoyed the bun on this one.

THE MAIN EVENT
This patty is typical for a restaruant patty. 3/4 in. (roughly 1.9 cm) cooked, and this sucker is charbroiled. It looks almost burnt when you take off the bun to add ketchup, mustard, and whatnot, but it really isn't. around some of the edges there was a little crispy part of hamburg goo that had gotten in the way of the burger, but for this burger, it just added more to the flavor. It was a little lighter brown in places, which is a big turnoff for people who like their meats very well-done, but I'm still alive and I've eaten a lot of meat in my day.

OVER ALL?
On a scale of 1 to 10, 1 being a shit burger to 10 being ultimate sensory delight burger, the Beltline Bar's Bacon Cheeseburger deserves a 7.8. We're close to sensory overload on this burger, but it is just sooo good.

Happy Eating!