TracyFood

Breakfast chilaquiles: a sort-of recipe, mostly in pictures. 12 March 2008 8:07 am

Posted by Tracy in : breakfast, cheese, cooking, eggs, pictures, recipes, vegan, vegetarian , 2 comments

You know you want them, especially now that Jen’s fabulous huevos rancheros are off the Morning Glory organic specials menu (I know I didn’t sell any chilaquiles at all last week, but they’ll probably go back to being their usual popular selves now).

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About cheese. 6 March 2008 7:07 pm

Posted by Tracy in : cheese, eating, friends, meta, vegan, vegetarian , 5 comments

Dear vegan and otherwise lactose- or milk-intolerant readers: I know this post will probably not interest you, but check out the Post-Punk Kitchen’s pizza party post for news about (and pictures of) exciting developments in non-dairy cheese technology!

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When I think about all the reasons I’m not (a) vegan (full disclosure: I think I prefer it as an adjective rather than a noun), eggs and cheese always end up fighting for the top spot on the list. I love them both so much that I’m really not sure which one I love more. (And I love them together, like in omelets, fritattas, or even plain ol’ fried egg sandwiches, but I digress.) Nor am I alone in my love, and it makes me really happy that good cheese is important to so many people. The other day Allison and I were chatting about nothing in particular, and we both spontaneously and independently mentioned cheese as something we’d spend a lot more money on if we had room for it in our respective budgets. I also know a few people who consider cheese their secret guilty food pleasure, like despite being relatively not-neurotic about their diets cheese is the one thing they feel they eat too much of, or can’t quite be comfortable about liking so much, or they can’t quite consider themselves vegan because they eat cheese, just every now and then, sort of the way I consider myself not even vegetarian despite the fact that the vast majority of my meals qualify me for the label. Anyway, all these thoughts have me pondering the possibility of a regular cheese feature for TracyFood, “Cheese of the Month” or something like that. What say you, readers?

Another possibility (more…)

Random brain snacks, from my browser tabs to yours. 15 January 2008 9:40 am

Posted by Tracy in : anthropology, cheese, cooking, geekery, pictures, reviews, school, work , 3 comments

Let’s see if I can prevent yet another Firefox crash! Here’s a little smorgasbord of delicious internet randomness, ranging from book reviews to music videos, all food-related (no, really).

First, here’s a review of Kitchen Literacy by Ann Vilesis, which I returned, unfinished, to the library this week because somebody else had it on hold. I never really got into this book, but I am way into EL’s use of the term “retrovore”, oh yes.

Next, an old Slate piece about chefs in film, complete with little clips of movies I’ve either seen or feel vaguely obligated to see now, if only to take notes on depictions of gender in films about food and cooking. (Um, can you tell I’m supposed to be writing a project proposal for my anthropology class? Eeek.)

Here’s a good rant about what it means to be a professional cook — both good and the bad bits. (more…)

Fotos before Friday: in which I sing the praises of Halloumi cheese 6 December 2007 9:10 pm

Posted by Tracy in : cheese, cooking, eating, salad, sundance, tea, vegetarian, work , add a comment

This post is dedicated to Jonathan, who was a little grossed out upon overhearing Peter’s half of tonight’s dinner plan phone conversation, but I won’t hold it against him; he takes mighty fine pictures. Anyway…

It’s been more than a year since I resigned from running the Sundance cheese department, and that was a few months after the last (and fortunately first and only) time the walk-in cooler broke down on my watch. When this happened (and it happened at least twice during my time at Sundance), the cheesehead (I did love my title, though I also went by cheesebeast) would recruit a helper or two, and a few shopping carts, which would be used to take all the back stock out of the cheese cooler to the walk-in fridge in the warehouse. If the cooler hadn’t been broken for too long, all the cheese in the displays could be moved as well. That was the case when the cooler went down on my watch (because we checked it obsessively and moved quickly when the temperature had been in “the danger zone” of above 40 degrees F for more than an hour). However, the other time I was present at Sundance for a deli walk-in failure, someone came into the deli in the morning and discovered that the cooler was at 50 degrees F — and had no way of knowing how long it had been too warm. In this case, to be on the safe side (and because doing otherwise would be a health code violation), none of the cheese that had been in that cooler overnight could be sold. The cheese worker that day spent it weighing all the cheese that was deemed no good, writing a long list of product lost, and filling the cooler’s free food shelf, over and over again. All the cheese eaters at Sundance that day made out like bandits.

What does this have to do with Halloumi cheese, you may ask? (more…)

No real post today! 12 September 2007 6:45 pm

Posted by Tracy in : cheese, friends, garden, local food, school , 2 comments

Instead, I have been busy eating the most delicious huevos rancheros ever (Cook’s Illustrated, January-February 2006 issue), watching movies and riding Pepe with Peter, and picking another few pounds of gorgeous ripe tomatoes from my garden, because at this point it might actually be easier than falling off a log. After I post this I’ll be taking one more practice GRE and getting a good night’s sleep and suchforth (having a really excellent day beforehand is an entirely appropriate way to get psyched up, right?) Everybody think good thoughts for me tomorrow morning from 9:30 AM Pacific time onwards, okay? Thanks.

Meanwhile, if you’re really starved for something delicious to read, check out Ella’s fantastic response to last week’s mac ‘n cheese challenge (so awesome!) Also I enjoyed New York magazine’s recent takes on the locavore phenomenon: My Empire of Dirt, an experiment in Brooklyn-style subsistence farming and Local Shmocal: Our critic weighs in on the latest wave of foodie correctness. If you’re still bored after that, please consider taking my pop quiz, and I’ll be back tomorrow, no doubt with some sort of comfort food recipe suitable for assisting in my recovery from freaking computer-based standardized test (urrrgh).

P.S. I solemnly promise I will not remember 7-11 with a Slurpee again until next year.