Blog Post List

This blog post list contains the most recent blog posts from The Messy Baker in reverse chronological order. You can also browse by recipe category or use the search function.

My local butcher shop isn't quite as picturesque as the one shown above. Even without cuts hanging in the windows or the latest specials written on the glass, I get an old-world feeling whenever I pop in. It's like I've walked into a scene from a BBC series set in small town Yorkshire, only the prices are in dollars and I can understand everything they say. Without  uncooperative shopping carts, long line ups and muzak nattering away in the background, I don't really feel like I'm grocery shopping. It's more like a friendly visit where money and meat exchange hands. While there's nothing wrong with supermarkets (except uncooperative shopping carts, long line ups and muzak), I find I'm spending more  and more of my grocery dollars at independent shops these days. At first I though it was about eating locally, but it's actually about community. After all, any chain store with a decent butcher can:
  • tell you know where your meat comes from
  • steer you towards the best (and not necessarily the most expensive) cut of meat
  • bring in special orders
  • custom cut / grind your meat
All you have to do is ask. So why go the the little guy? You likely won't fully appreciate your independent butcher (or green grocer or cheese monger) until you:

This is a my mom. Four years old and full of spunk. This photo, with an impeccably well-groomed child perched on an equally well-groomed pony, standing on a freshly swept urban sidewalk, shaped my vision of an ideal childhood -- the one I was so cruelly...

Coddle! Fricassee! Macerate! Sorry. I just had to get that out of my system. I'd like to publicly thank everyone who took the time to give me a reality check the other day. Having read a few too many "how to write about food" articles, I researched myself into a corner. But you pulled me out, dusted me off and gave me a reassuring pat on the back. Thanks. I've been thinking a lot about what you've said and now feel confident that if I toss out a forbidden term you will either understand it, figure things out from the context or turn to Google. It also seems that you are a curious bunch who like to expand your gadgets collection as well as your culinary knowledge. So, here are four books I turn to often in my quest to develop new recipes or at least not cause any more kitchen disasters in the process. While they cover similar territory, each does so in a different way. I'm betting between the four, there's one (or more) that will suit.
Spend enough time doing something and it will change the way you think, mess with your assumptions, and skew your expectations. When I studied fiction writing everyone who walked into the cafe was a potential character. Their clothes, their order, their gait held clues to their inner thoughts and beliefs. Woah! Everyone noticed the dude in the just-out-of-the-box, neon green shoelaces and dirty, frayed red high tops. Right? Okay, you were busy reading the menu. But the guy who ordered the double chai latte? Come on. Was he doing a bad Brando impersonation or did he just come from the dentist. Didn't notice him either? Hmmm. Seems it's just me. Being immersed in the world of food, I thought I was safe from outing myself yet again as an oddball.

Wanting to redeem myself from the monumental failure of my salted caramel candy apples -- which devolved into sliced apples and a dip -- I accepted the task of creating an avocado recipe for MissAvaCado's Cinco de Mayo Blogger Challenge. The results have me wondering...

Raspberry Peach Pie about to go into the oven - TheMessyBaker.com While the daffodils have finally poked their heads through the earth, my freezer remains packed with containers of frozen fruit squirrelled away from last year's harvest. They're so precious to me, I save them for special occasions. Very special occasions. As along as the sooty, deathless snowdrifts maintain a Narnia-like hold on the Earth, nothing seems special enough. (Unless you are celebrating your 85th birthday. And then, I will bake you a raspberry pie upon request.) Of course, the weather eventually breaks and my fear of endless winter melts into a different form of  panic. How can use my frozen treasure before a) it goes bad or b) I need the freezer space for this year's bounty? So, with company coming -- very special company, I may add-- I put a dent in the inventory and got creative. The ginger-peach carrots were okay, but no worth writing about. I won't waste your time with the recipe. And I apologize to the peaches. They deserved better. The dessert? I redeemed myself with Raspberry Peach Pie.
As a child, whenever my table manners were less than stellar, my mother would fix me with a gaze that could freeze time. With a mixture of horror and regret, she would inform me that I was not yet ready to have tea with the Queen. Her tone implied an invitation had been winging its way to our humble home, but had been yanked from the queue the instant my elbows hit the table. Four decades later, while my table manners have improved vastly, Tea with The Queen eludes me. I have also failed to receive an invitation to the upcoming Royal nuptials. I'm sure they mailed it, but like the invitations of my childhood, it vaporized en route due to my behaviour. I blame the truffles.
Potato Latkes, draining - TheMessyBaker.com I was going to make you guess what's in the photo above, but the post's headline gives it away. Darn you, Google, and your search engine demands. If you hover your cursor over the image, you will know, these golden fritters are potato latkes. I made a big batch after the recent potato-fueled food fight. I'd like to tell you this was culinary revenge, a well-thought out, two-pronged political move to advocate potato farmers while sticking it to the makers of Fake Food in a Canister. But to be honest, it was simply a quick way to satisfy my stomach. Thinking about potatoes all day left me  hungry -- for  potatoes. So, with little more than four medium spuds and an onion on hand, I cooked the only thing I could think of that used these ingredients. Latkes -- and lots of them -- was the result.
With dozens of product pitches landing in my inbox daily, it takes a lot for one to stand out. Yesterday, one jumped off the monitor and poked me in the eyeball. Their selling point. "[It] takes just 2 minutes to prepare in the microwave  -- no extra pots or dishes to wash." Oh, they had me at "microwave". But not in the way they intended. What left me rubbing my eyes in disbelief? Their approach. Was it to promote their product? Not so much. The aim of this campaign is: "To create humorous posts about how potatoes are a boring alternative to Fake Food In a Canister." (Note: I have changed the name of the product in question to protect The Shameless.) Too dumb to insult a root vegetable all on your own? Maybe one of these suggestions will get the creative juices flowing:
  • An image and story of talk show host potato that has put its guests to sleep
  • An image and story of a potato totally underdressed in it's (sic) plain old skin for an event
  • Showcase kids talking about how boring potatoes are and how they love Fake Food In a Canister
  • Showcase how potatoes don't cut it - they're so worthless to eat - doorstoppers, brick-fixes (spoof on home entertainment show sponsored by Fake Food in a Canister)
Apparently, it's even funnier if you drag children into it. Nothing like teaching them how to run a smear campaign early. As a proponent of real food -- and a potato lover -- I'm not taking this sitting down.
5 Things I never thought I’d have in my pantry

 

Can you keep a secret? After going on and on about Homemade This and From-Scratch That, I've come to realize there is a spot for convenience foods in my life and in my cupboard. While I prefer fresh to tinned, homemade to reconstituted, the food snob in me has learned to make concessions. I just don't usually broadcast them for fear that fessing up will get me banned from the culinary section of the Internet -- or at least pelted with organic heirloom tomatoes.

While the following items are to food what K-Mart is to fashion, they do the trick -- under specific circumstances. So here is my culinary confession. My pantry contains the following non-artisan, non-organic, far-from-fresh items. And I'm not about to give them up.