Grilled Cheese

     I like many varieties of sandwiches. Many of which I will explore over the next few posts, or more. Each kind of sandwich has its own qualities. (And even the simplest sandwiches can go wrong, but this isn't the most disastrous sandwiches in America or anything, so I won't really go into that.) I shall start off by talking Grilled Cheese.
     What could be more delicious than a slab of cheese between buttered bread grilled to perfection? Well, a BLT (bacon lettuce and tomato) because it's my favorite sandwich, but that's beside the point. Talking about grilled cheese seemed the right sandwich to start with, though.
     At first I always made my grilled cheese with white bread and hadn't thought of trying it with any other bread for some reason. But later I decided to try with some other kinds and they came out half decent, though the white bread will always be my favorite bread for grilled cheese.
     Buttering bread before putting it on the grill helps the crisping process. I've never used anything, but real butter for the buttering process; however, fake butter obviously isn't made the same way as real butter is, so it probably wouldn't come up with the same result in the grilled cheese.
     What's the biggest factor in making grilled cheese? You guessed it! The cheese itself. From American to Swiss to provolone, each cheese brings quite the difference of flavor to the table.

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. I will just leave you with this beautiful picture of grilled cheese.

Corn of the cob

     A seasonal favorite of mine is corn of the cob. You certainly can't get it in the winter and not in the spring either. It's a summer food. Well, you probably can get in during the winter, but it wouldn't be from around here. Unlike steak, you can't really change the recipe for it. However, you can add certain after effects.
      Of course, corn can't grow in the mountains, and Colorado is famous for its mountain's (the rocky mountains). However, they do grow corn in Colorado, just not in the mountains. If the corn isn't grown in your area then it's probably not fresh. Obviously, the farther away the corn is coming from the longer it takes to get to its destination and the less fresh it'll be. I'm leaving the starting farm and the corn's final destination not specified because it would be different for each individual. Thankfully, unlike, for example canned peaches, you can see the product. Or get a general picture anyway. With canned peaches, if they used bad peaches (for whatever reason), then you don't have any idea what your product looks like, or the size of it, until you open up the can and hope for the best. Corn on the cob is only in its natural container; its husk. You can generally get a picture of what the size of the corn is by the size of the husk or gentle feeling the place of the cob in the husk. Also, by the health status of the husk, you can try and judge the quality of the corn itself. If you buy local corn on the cob then you probably don't need to check it, though that could change depending on how many people are buying it and how much has been sitting around. However, whether it is necessary to check the corn or not, it is still good practice. Also, you never know when something could come up. Overall, I think I have had pretty good luck with picking out corn.
     All foods can be compared to each other in some way or another. When cooking steak, it has been noted that you can season it with a whole arsenal of spices and herbs. Also, it can be cooked to several different variations of how done it is. Lastly, several different steak sauces can be added when consumed or left with out any. (Last night, my steak was juicy enough without any sauce added). With corn on the cob, the choices are rather limited. There are always ways to vary how to bring food to the table, but some food can be changed less than others. With corn on the cob I boil a pot of water and drop the dehusked corns in. Later, I take them out and pile them on a plate. When I'm ready for my next corn on the cob, I remove it from the other plate and place it on my plate where I proceed to put the corn on the cob holders on either side of my corn on the cob.

A picture of corn on the cob holders.

After I have adjusted my corn on the cob holders so that they won't fall off as soon as I pick them up I pick up my corn on the cob. You would have pretaken out a stick of butter and placed it in a special container before the start of the meal.

Here you can see what my stick of butter holder looks like.

I twirl my corn on the cob over the stick of butter, so that it just barely scrapes the utmost top layer of butter off and onto my corn. I continue the process until each kernel of corn has butter on it. Or rather, almost all. There is generally a stubborn corn that I can't get to, but amongst the rest of the butter it isn't noticeable.
 I salt my corn next, but you don't have to. Some people like their food saltier than other people.
     Enjoy you corn on the cob and the summer!

Steak

     Last night I had steak for supper. Steak can be defined very easily through a few words: price, quantity,  and quality.
     One of the foods that can get the most expensive is steak. However, when the price increases, generally, the quality does too. If you want to be good at picking out steaks than you have to learn to ignore the price because if you are someone who has a tight budget or are very careful with how you spend your money than buying good steak isn't for you. Of course, if you ignore your budget too often and continuously buy steak then you will end up going through your money very fast, if you're buying good steak. Who wants that much steak anyway? I only eat steak on an occasion because there are so many other foods to try or retry, why stay on the same food over and over each night? I would think it would get boring.
     You may think that the words quantity and steak don't generally go together. On the contrary, quantity is just how much of something there is, no matter how much or how little. In a store, you can buy as much steak as you want, your budget will allow, how much you can carry or how much is in stock. Then when you get home, you can cook as much or as little of it as you want. I generally cook my steak the size of a hockey puck. Maybe I could eat more, but there is always a side or two with it that I have to add so that it isn't just steak. Also, I could end up eating someone else's leftover and I have to have room for that. However, in a restaurant you are limited to the sizes on the menus, though the chefs probably have more experience with cooking and preparing the steak then you do.
     The most important aspect of a steak is its quality, Personally, the steak I had last night was a very good juicy steak that was cooked well. If you are going to be picking out steak, or any other meat, you should know what the fat of that type of meat looks like; that way you can try and choose a package, in this case steak, that has the least amount of fat in it. However, just because fat isn't the best thing to be eating (health and texture wise) doesn't mean having a bit of it on your steak is the end of the world. You can cut the fat off before or after cooking the steak, but if you cut it off before you cook the steak then you could use it later.
     Steak is definitely on the to-try list, just not on the OK-to-indulge-in list. Steak doesn't cost as much if you only buy it once or kill the quality, but I like the quality. I have steak once or twice a month and it doesn't drain my budget, but I guess it varies from budget to budget.

Baby Back Ribs

      Hello all. I know it has been a bit, but it wouldn't be college if I didn't study once in a while. Today's post is about a popular food called Baby Back Ribs.

Some of my supper.

Generally, I have baked brown beans with my baby back ribs and a canned fruit. Tonight the canned fruit I'm going to have with it peaches. Ribs can go from here to there. Some are juice, some are dry, some have a lot of barbecue sauce and some have hardly any (though you can always add your own).
     Personally, I have my own arsenal of barbecue sauces. Below is a picture of one of my favorites.

 

I like Richard's barbecue sauce; I got it from Vermont. Actually I ordered online and they shipped a box of them to me.

I'm all for trying new barbecue sauces, but if I were you I wouldn't order a whole box just to try it. You might not like it! You probably have to buy in bulk. However, I'm sure that any grocery store has several barbecue sauces to choose from.
     Because I like barbecue sauce on my ribs it can get quite messy. My friend Chloe claims that she can eat ribs with lots of barbecue sauce on them and eat them neat. (I haven't seen this). Today I ate supper with my friend Eli who made a bit of a mess; though not as much as me... I got some sauce on my shirt. (I'm sure that stain comes out.)
     I hear that brown beans are best when not just reheated from the can. However, all though I can cook somewhat, I have yet to try and cook brown beans from scratch.
     The peaches are my short term dessert. Later I had a rice crispy square for a better dessert, but peaches are fine for eating just after supper. The unfortunate thing about rice crispy squares is that they are messy. If I am not careful than I could get it all over my coach. Or I could just eat over my coffee table...
     And that sums up my Baby Back Ribs dinner plus dessert.

Movies and food

     I love watching movies, watching TV shows, trying new foods and eating in general. Many times when what I'm watching (whether movie or series) has food it makes me want to try it, if I haven't tried it before. This can be especially true if I'm watching something like 'Chopped' or 'Iron Chef'. I'll give some examples.
     1. Jammy Dodgers. I watched a passing episode of TV show called 'Doctor Who'. In this episode (who knows what the name of it was), the main character was eating a Jammy Dodgers, after threatening something to blow them up if they didn't cooperate. At first I didn't know what he was hold, but he mentioned the name later. (And he wanted tea with it.)

     2. Mango. A fruit that I didn't know existed. They had to use one on 'Chopped'. Chopped is a cooking show that involves 4 chefs cooking with at least four ingredients given to them. The worst chef loses each round. (there's 3 round; Appetizer, entree and dessert.) Surprisingly mangoes were easy to find.

 
     3.Chocolate Covered Pickles. Saw these at a fair. I didn't need to find it because I decided I wanted to try it when it was right in front of me. They were pretty good. I won't recommend eating them if you are a die hard chocolate lover because than you'll say there's too little chocolate on it and miss the whole point.

 4. Anchovies. I don't remember how I got associated with this fish. It's rather salty. Just like any other food, it's a matter of opinion on if it's any good or not. Personally, I think they're too salty, but if you like seafood it's worth a try; or if you like salty foods, like potato chips; or if you like both.

There is plenty other scenarios, but I hope you get the picture; try new foods that you haven't tried before. Though there's certainly no problem with having your own limits, just don't make them so you don't try anything new.

New things

     No one needs to talk me into trying new things. I'm all for that; you won't know unless you try it, right? In fact, I've tried several things that other people wouldn't try. (Though there is that line. I hear there is a such thing as chocolate covered ant and that's were I draw the line at trying new food.)
     Aside from that, I've tried things like eating pickled eggs, chocolate covered bacon, bacon milkshake, chocolate covered pickles and anchovies. (I'm not saying there isn't people who would eat them without a second thought; I'm just saying that I took the time to try what I wouldn't normally eat.)

I got my bacon milkshake at Denny's along with a few other bacon related products they were selling.

     Despite what people say, I did in fact try swimming before I decided I didn't like it. Not being able to swim may have something to do with it, but I won't even put my feet in the water or as my friends always hear me say 'my big toe'. My big toe always feels like it's going to freeze off. You could almost say I'm paranoid of large bodies of water. Though when I'm not standing in the water or with my big toe in the water, I'm generally one of the warmest people around. Swimming or standing in a lake, ocean or pond just isn't for me.
     Let's see, what else have I tried? I'm not a big roller coaster guy. I've gone on a few, but they just weren't what I thought they'd be. I don't get nauseous easily, but roller coaster do make me feel a little queasy.
     Oh, I'm always watching a new movie. Me and best friend Dale are always going to the movies together. So if you count that as trying something new than I do that quite often. I have a larger view point of good movies than Dale, though not by much. TV shows is something else I watch several of. However I haven't been able to watch as much TV or go to as many movies sense I started going to college. Not that there is always good movies coming out.
     I'm not sure if trying a new class counts or not. Sure it's something new, but if you want to get that degree than you don't have much choice. Though you did choose to go to college and try a whole new experience, so that must count for something....
     Moving on, I've tried many friendships and they have all worked out. I'm now good friends with Dale and Eli. Also, I'm friends with Ginn and Chloe. Furthermore, I've had the pleasure of becoming acquaintance with Lisa, Amanda, Tamara, David, Ronald, Nicholas, Everett, Varro, Matthew, Barnes, Kiva, Camille, Hunter, Ellie and James. I have no girlfriend as of now, but I have no problem trying that if it were to come my way. (A girl who is a great cook would be nice.)
     So, you shouldn't be afraid to try new things when they come your way. I know I'm not. This should mean a lot coming from a guy who tries a lot of new things.

[All pictures that I post on my blog are from the web. I have no camera of my own and, when I borrowed a friends camera, my pictures were really blurry.]

Cookies or donuts?

  Personally, I like cookies better than donuts. Donuts are messy and can be dry, depending on how they're made or how long they've been out. But don't take my word for it! Donuts are cheep. Just go down to your local Dunkin Donuts (or whatever donut shop you have in your area.) and buy a cheep donut and make the

decision for yourself.

  Now cookies on the other hand, I love cookies. Especially, soft chocolate chip cookies. You don't want to have to bite hard to get a bite of a cookie.

Also, Santa was right about one thing, cookies (especially chocolate chip cookies.)  go very well with a glass of milk.

Now there seems too be more flavors of donuts than cookies. Why is that? Maybe it's because donuts seem to be named after quite a few thing in compared to cookies which are just named after their flavor.

Get out there and get tasting!