@andrew...you've always wanted to live in a church.
Not me, feel like it's a ticket straight to hell. Not that i'm not already on my way!
Think you have what it takes to create a comfortable living space in a re-purposed structure? It requires vision for what's possible, and custom solutions for carving out space.
Apparently Jim Morrison isn’t the only American-bred cultural icon buried in Pere Lachaise. A friend emailed me this photo he took in the cemetery with the caption, “Pauvre Pepe!”
HOW IS THIS A GOOD QUESTION??? It's called throw them away and get an ipod....perfect way to store 1000 cds.
Q: My husband collects books, records, and CDs. After years of trying to streamline, we still have two ten foot tall bookcases filled a couple rows deep with books and three mismatched CD racks scattered throughout the apartment, each holding at least 250 CDs, not to mention a couple hundred more stashed in various drawers:
Ok - i appreciate that kenji is going vegan and all, but I feel like all he does is make things out of fake cheese.....i feel like he should make some real vegan stuff that tastes could without fake ingredients.
[Photographs: J. Kenji Lopez-Alt]
Editor's Note: Welcome to the third year of The Vegan Experience! All month we're exploring the vegan lifestyle, from dining out to eating in, developing a slew of delicious recipes for vegan appetizers, snacks, and entrees along the way. For more posts in the series, check here!
Yesterday, when I posted a long article about constructing awesome fully-loaded vegan nachos, complete with recipe, step-by-step illustrated instructions, well-researched and thought-out tips and techniques on the construction and serving of said nachos, and a slew of what I considered to be particularly mouthwatering photos, I was immediately and unceremoniously called out for creating a new recipe that largely relies on the success of previous recipes for it to work.
I suppose it is a bit like putting together a novel by slapping together a series of short stories, but damn is it one delicious novel. And more importantly, it demonstrates the one thing I try to get across more than anything else in The Food Lab: if you learn a single recipe, you've learned how to cook one dish. But learn the basic techniques behind that recipe—the individual components—and you've opened yourself up to a world of invention.
By altering the basic flavors of my Vegan Nacho Sauce recipe, you have the ability to create a vegan version of basically any dish that uses gooey melted cheese sauce, including Vegan Cheesy Baked Potatoes with Broccoli, Vegan Nachos, and today's project: Vegan Stovetop Macaroni and Cheese
It's actually a pretty straight-forward recipe once you've got the basic nacho sauce technique down. It starts the same way, with onions and garlic sautéed in vegetable shortening (the saturated fat gives the finished sauce a creamy, rich texture), followed by a series of aromatics: powdered garlic (which has a distinct flavor from fresh), paprika, mustard, and tomato paste in lieu of the spicier elements that I used in the straight-up nacho sauce recipe.
Without those chipotle peppers, you need an extra savory hit here, so I use a dab of miso paste. The rest is pretty much identical: add some cashews and toast them lightly, followed by some sliced potatoes (which turn gooey and sticky when blended later on), simmer it all with a mixture of water and nut milk (I use almond), and then purée it at high speed until smooth and gooey.
All that's left is to stir the sauce into some cooked macaroni, heating it on the stovetop after adding the sauce to get it to really adhere to each noodle and thinning it out with a little extra pasta water to a creamy consistency.
You end up with a stovetop mac and cheese that is as creamy, gooey, salty, tangy, and comforting as anything that's ever come out of a blue box.
Real-time pedestrian data can help police with crowd control, inform future city planning decisions, and even help you avoid waiting in line. Placemeter is a startup that's using New York's traffic cams to analyze real-time data, estimate the size of a crowd inside a building, and approximate wait times.
The Huffington Post released an infographic showing the immediate and long-term effects of skimping on sleep. Even after one night of less than seven hours, you're more likely to have an accident, catch a cold, and suffer loss of brain tissue.
The King Cole cocktail is an unusual spin on the Old Fashioned. [Photographs: Nick Caruana]
An Old Fashioned with Fernet Branca and pineapple? Yeah, I thought that might get your attention.
I first had the King Cole at a Washington, DC bar called 2 Birds 1 Stone (a place that's definitely worth a visit if you're in the area). At the time, I didn't know that the drink was a classic. I assumed it was a modern riff on a Toronto, since both drinks feature whiskey, Fernet, and simple syrup. But the King Cole has been around a lot longer than I thought.
King Cole (or Old King Cole as it's sometimes called) pops up in a number of cocktail books, the oldest of which I've seen being Hugo Ensslin's 1916 Recipes for Mixed Drinks. Unfortunately, none of these books give any clue as to who invented it or where it came from. My first bets were on the King Cole Bar in New York (for obvious reasons), but this drink was around well before that bar.
It's not a stretch to think that the drink may have gotten its name from the old nursery rhyme:
Old King Cole was a merry old soul
And a merry old soul was he;
He called for his pipe, and he called for his bowl
And he called for his fiddlers three.
Every fiddler he had a fiddle,
And a very fine fiddle had he;
Oh there's none so rare, as can compare
With King Cole and his fiddlers three.
Have no doubt, after a few of these you'll be a merry old soul indeed.
The Classic:
King Cole Ingredients
King Cole is basically an Old Fashioned that uses Fernet Branca as the bitters. The garnish adds on a chunk of fragrant pineapple, and the final result is a bit mellower than your standard O-F, with a nice juicy citrus side and a smooth finish. It's a bit lighter on the bitter aspects than an Old Fashioned, and adds on an herbal, minty flavor.
Despite the inclusion of Fernet Branca, this isn't a bold, aggressive drink—King Cole is the kind of cocktail that almost anyone would enjoy, whether they're cocktail fanatics or new to the mixed-drink scene.
To make a variation on the old classic, I didn't want to go too far from the Fernet Branca and fruit used in the original. Instead of using bourbon and simple syrup, though, I pulled out a bottle of Hochstadter's Rock and Rye, which we've mentioned on Serious Eats before. Rye brings more spice than bourbon and the added flavors of orange and honey go well in this drink, plus the sweetener is already built in. I upped the Fernet Branca to stand up to the stronger flavors.
To emphasize the orange flavor, I added a little Pierre Ferrand dry curacao instead of the orange twist. Finish it off with a few blueberries and you've got something with a little more oomph than the original King Cole.
The Boy Blue, as I call it, has that bitter spice of an Old Fashioned that's somewhat lacking in the original King Cole. It has accents of sugar, orange, and grain with an herbal undertone, and a lightly bittered finish to round it out.
About the author:Nick Caruana is the author of The Straight Up, where he shares his love of classic and modern cocktails, including a slight obsession with whiskey, bitters and amari. Stalk him on Twitter @The_Straight_Up, Facebook, and other social media outlets.
The beautifully designed Moka Pot, equally ubiquitous and divisive among coffee fans, was invented in 1933 by Luigi di Ponti. The machine was quickly put into production by a mustachioed metal machinist from Piedmont, Alfonso Bialetti, who transformed di Ponti's so-called "Moka Express", an aluminum, pressure-driven stove-top coffee brewer, into one of the most famous, familiar brewers in the world.
Though it's essentially a percolating device, Bialetti legend suggests that the machine was inspired by early clothes-washing machines which used a heat source to boil a pail of sudsy water and cause it to rise up out of a tube, which could be aimed at soiled laundry. Instead, of course, the Moka Express causes hot water to pass upwards, through coffee grounds, and rise up out of a tube—meaning brewed coffee does not have to pass through any additional coffee filters, as the grounds stay below the final extraction.
The charmingly octagonal Moka Pot, sometimes also called a caffettiera, a macchinetta or stovetop espresso maker, carries with it a strong, sludgy cup of historical significance in coffee. As a design piece, it's internationally renowned, rivaled perhaps only in comeliness by the Chemex. (Look for both in the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, and many others.) As an industrial innovation, it's noteworthy, too: the brewer's aluminum construction was revolutionary in coffee at that time, and the brewer's gradual rise in popularity dovetailed with a modernist shift towards aluminum's prominence in the kitchen. (Many contemporary models are, however, available made of stainless steel, and even available in smoother, sexier shapes, like the design named "Venus".)
Culturally, the Moka Pot marked a historical shift from espresso as an out-of-the-house-only beverage to one that could be approximated in the home, which coincided nicely with Italy's economic downturn of the 1930s. Bearing in mind that espresso made in commercial-grade machines is brewed with a much higher amount of pressure (9 bar) than the boiling water in a stovetop pot can provide (maybe 2 bar, if you're lucky), these brewers are able to produce an intense, concentrated brew that many home drinkers enjoy as a substitute for traditional espresso. This democratization of a style of coffee that was previously tied to a cafe or restaurant experience was one of the first home brewing revolutions.
To brew, water is placed in the lower chamber of the pot (starting with very hot water works best, to avoid "baking" your coffee grounds before extraction begins), and drip-sized ground coffee is placed evenly in the coffee chamber. The pot is then placed on a heat source, lid open, where water heated slowly over medium-high heat will eventually boil and rise through the coffee, extracting it, and sending it up the spout into the top chamber. Once it's finished extracting, one may close the lid and dispense their strong brew from their historic octagonal pitcher.
In 1953, the company commissioned a drawing that would become as iconic as the Moka Express itself: a drawing of Bialetti as a pointy-fingered, squat man with an impressive moustache. (The moustachioed little man adorns the side of Bialetti Moka pots to this day.)
While it's not for everyone—many argue poor extraction and metallic taste among the Moka's shortcomings—it's a method of brewing venerated by many, and worthy of respect in the continued canon of coffee invention and innovation. (After all, if a metalworker had never made a home espresso maker, a flying-ring sports toy manufacturer probably wouldn't have invented one either.)
About the author: Liz Clayton drinks, photographs and writes about coffee and tea all over the world, though she pretends to live in Brooklyn, New York. She is the creator of Nice Coffee Time, a book of photographs of the best coffee in the world, published by Presspop, is the New York City correspondent for Sprudge.com, and contributes to other outfits worldwide.
ARG this bothers me.....like when I asked someone to bring fruit salad and they showed up with a bunch of fruit to cut. YOU IDIOT anyone can do that, cut it first, put it in a bowl and bring it. you can bring things to heat, but that's the line!!!! (the end)
[Image: Robyn Lee]
Dear Molly,
Here's something that's been bothering me: guests that ask what they can bring, and then show up with a grocery bag and expect to prep/assemble/cook the dish at my house while I'm preparing the rest of the meal. I've had this happen several times recently, and it drives me nuts. I'm a very neat, organized cook, and our kitchen, dining room, and living room are all one open space so it's very important to me that the kitchen is kept nice when entertaining. Having a guest come in and make a huge mess and a lot of chaos is incredibly disruptive, but how does one discourage that? I've tried saying nicely, "Please bring an appetizer that is ready to serve when you arrive," but that didn't work. I've pretty much taken to just asking guests to bring drinks, but sometimes they really WANT to bring a dish, and we're back to the same issue.
Please advise,
Keep Out of My Kitchen
Dear Keep Out of My Kitchen,
Oh man, do I hear you. Unless I'm laid up recovering from surgery and you're coming over to grill lamb kebabs and throw together a couscous salad for me like my cousin Sam once did, absolutely do not show up at my house with a bag of groceries expecting access to my kitchen.
I sometimes feel alone in my dislike of the generalized potlucking of dinner parties. While everyone around me joyously offers to bring a side dish or solicits carried-in salads, I'm thinking that I either want to plan and cook the entire dinner, or I'd rather not give it a thought until I ring someone else's doorbell. The whole asking-to-bring-things dance exhausts me, and I sometimes yearn for the guests of yesteryear, who knew to bring a host gift (like flowers) and send a thank-you note the next day.
When people ask what they can bring, I go with drinks. When they insist, I insist right back. There are several ways to do this.
First, you can be honest. You plan and cook in a particular way and you don't like having it disrupted. This works well if you can be a tad self-deprecating in the process, perhaps referring to yourself as a bit of a control freak for good measure.
Second, you can emphasize that you've already planned the menu and you're excited about it. It's all done! There's nothing to add! If they could bring drinks that would be super helpful! I've also found that outsourcing the task of picking up something fairly innocuous, like bread, can work nicely with people who really want to feel like they're helping.
Third, simply keep track of which of your guests can be relied upon to show up with food ready-to-go and allow them to do so.
There is, as I'm sure many readers will point out, another tactic. You could decide that you and I are entirely too uptight. You could let your kitchen get messy and chaotic. You could loosen up, embrace the living-in-the-moment aspect of entertaining, and know that people enjoy a gathering for many reasons, but rarely the neatness of the kitchen.
This last approach is beyond my own abilities, but I know it's probably the better, more generous course. If you happen to be a better person than I and more capable of change, my hat is off to you.
Have you found yourself in a dining-related pickle recently (and not the delicious kind that indicates you're in a good deli)? Email etiquette@seriouseats.com to submit your question. All questions will be read, though unfortunately not all can be answered.
About the Author: Molly Watson honed her ability to guide others in tricky situations by telling her little brother the best way to do everything. See what she has to say beyond dining at Ask a (Sensible) Midwesterner. Check out her work as a recipe wizard at Local Foods.
Even though its name has been shortened to Laksa King, Bo Laksa King's Bubbles and Bits—still in use on the sidewalk's sandwich board and receipts—is one of my favorite restaurant names of all time. ("Bo" was for Bo Han, a Myanmar native and the original owner of the restaurant.) A short ten minute drive from downtown Vancouver, this hole-in-the-wall restaurant is a destination for its namesake laksa and other dishes with influences from throughout Southeast Asia.
The laksa ($8.75) is the curry variety (in contrast to asam laksa, which is a sour fish soup, "asam" being the Malay word for tamarind), made with a choice of vermicelli or yellow wheat noodles. (I prefer the springiness of the wheat noodles.) The "house made authentic flavor coconut curry broth" is creamy and comforting, with an alluringly rich fragrance. The flavor is both sweet and spicy, with jalapeno, lime, and cilantro contributing to its complexity. Sambal chile paste is on hand for an extra kick. The best part is the assortment of proteins: tiger prawns, fish balls, a hard-boiled egg, chicken, and tofu puff—the perfect sponge for the flavorful broth.
Laksa King's laphet thoke
Another worthwhile order is the Burmese classic laphet thoke ($8). This salad contains pickled fermented green tea leaves, tomato, cabbage, garlic chips, roasted peanuts, sesame seeds, broad beans, and dried shrimp, all dressed with seasoned lime juice. Since my introduction to the dish at Burma Superstar in San Francisco (where the pageantry of the tableside salad-mixing was the perfect reward for the long wait for a table), I've loved knowing that it's possible to eat tea as well as drink it. The tea leaves are slightly earthy, bitter, and pungent, but when combined with the other ingredients, they make for a refreshing salad popping with contrasting flavors and textures. For those fearful of the fermented tea leaves, Jin Thoke is available at the same price, which substitutes pickled ginger for the tea leaves—either way, it's a wholly captivating dish that I hope to see more of soon.
About the author: Jay Friedman is a Seattle-based freelance food writer who happens to travel extensively as a sex educator. An avid fan of noodles (some call him "The Mein Man"), he sees sensuality in all foods, and blogs about it at his Gastrolust website. You can follow him on Twitter @jayfriedman.
Aaron Paul's wheels were totally spinning while he was on The Price Is Right back in 2000, and according to him, he looked under the influence!
In a recent interview, Aaron talked about his now viral episode of the game show, and how he used a little something extra to get his energy up...b*tch:
“It looks like I’m on some serious crack. I downed about six cans of Red Bull because I knew they wanted people with energy. It worked, but I could not sit still. It was not healthy.”
Well, we're glad that it was only Red Bull and not actual crack, or, you know, Blue Sky! It's clear that this Need For Speed actor has no actual need for speed.
Ch-ch-check out Aaron fangirling hardcore over his "idol" Bob Barker...AFTER THE JUMP!!!
New York has a new wave of luxury home buyers: under-40 multimillionaires. These young buyers care less about status and amenities and more about privacy, quality, and character. The new crop of buildings catering to this set include Sterling Mason in TriBeCa, 200 Eleventh Avenue in Chelsea and 285 Lafayette Street in SoHo.
Better Homes & Gardens conducted a survey on Millennials and home ownership. 82% of those asked prefer to do their own home improvements, 77% would rather have an "essential" home to a "luxury" one, and 56% believe technology is more important than curb appeal.
By October 2015, the swipe and sign credit card system will be mostly extinct. U.S. credit card companies will be switching to a chip & PIN system, like much of the rest of the world. A quarter of all credit card transactions happen in the U.S., but we have half of the instances of credit card fraud, and it's mostly attributed to the swipe and sign method.
People who referred to themselves as “you” or by their own names while silently talking to themselves in preparation for a five-minute speech were subsequently calmer and more confident and performed better on the talk than people who had referred to themselves as “I” or “me” (3.6 versus 3.2 on a combined five-point scale, in the view of judges), says a team led by Ethan Kross of the University of Michigan. The research participants who talked to themselves in the second or third person also felt less shame afterward. By distancing us from ourselves, the use of the second and third person in internal monologues enables us to better regulate our emotions, the researchers say.
This past year multiple clients requested something for their bath that I had never heard of before: putting the tub inside of the shower. And by this, they meant they want one glass-enclosed 'wet room' for bathing and showering. This configuration has an airy spa-like feel and look, and takes up less space than designing separate tub and showering areas.
As someone who has been obsessed with interiors for most of my life, I absorb so much content daily from work, blogs, vendors, etc. that it's rare for me to come across something so surprising that it completely stops me in my tracks. That's exactly what happened when I saw this apartment in Paris by Ramy Fischler.
Looking to live large in Alabama? This Versailles-style manse in Shoal Creek is the largest listing in the United States. The main house is 54,400 square feet, but with an equestrian lounge and two guest houses, the size clocks in at 62,000 square feet. Music lover bonus: from overhead, the landscaping is shaped like a guitar.
Bode Miller won a bronze medal in the Super G today, making him both the most medaled skier in history and the oldest person to win an alpine medal at the Games. But during his post-race interview, NBC correspondent Christin Cooper asked him so many questions about his dead brother that he eventually broke down crying and walked away.
I watched this during primetime tonight and would have been shocked if not for the fact that NBC has done this every. single. time.
Any time an athlete reacts with emotion to a question from a correspondent, they just keep asking questions and ZOOM into the tears.
Their attempt to turn the Olympic games into a shmaltzy emo-fest is downright silly.
The best part is that Jordin was totally surprised, and onlookers couldn’t help but notice how in love the couple seemed.
And as if he wasn’t sweet enough, Jason shared a pic of them (above) and said:
“10,000 roses fill this suite! I only wish I could've fit 10,000 more in here! Valentines everyday! Thank u 2#passionroses 4 helping 2make this special.”
Aww! It’s safe to say that people all over the world are even more jealous of Jordin now! A hawt man who loves Valentine’s day?!
Jordin had some words to say about the moment too, sharing her own pic (below), and writing:
“Completely overwhelmed by 10,000 roses today from, my love, @jasonderulo. They're so beautiful! Omg.#supersweettweet”
There are few things better than true love, and it looks like this couple may have found it!
But now the big question is how does Mr. Derulo outdo himself next year?! Ha!
Name: Sarah & David Location: Fort Greene, Brooklyn, New York Size: 1 bedroom + outdoor patio Years lived in: 10 months; rented
Sarah and David's apartment is the perfect example of a great tenant/landlord relationship. Their apartment had great bones to begin with, with exposed brick, a beautiful chandelier, and lots of lovely traditional moldings that provide a nice contrast to the soon-to-be married pair's modern taste. In addition to that, their landlord refinished the floors and added a brand-new kitchen. And if that weren't wonderful enough, there's even a private patio, which the couple has tiled with wood patio flooring from IKEA (see last photo for a summer pic). In short, this place is every apartment dweller's dream.
When you really think about it, it's not that surprising that M. Night Shyamalan ghostwrote She's All That. SPOILER: He loves ghosts! This fact was reported by Movies.com at the end of last month in a pre–After Earth interview. Yesterday, it was re-aggregated by NME.com and people are talking about
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super sad as he was 48...but on anohter night what kind of is Gyongyi?
This is SO tragic!
John Henson, Muppets puppeteer and son of Jim and Jane Henson, passed away on Friday after suffering a massive heart attack. And on Valentine’s day, of all days!
The puppeteer’s family let people know on Facebook, telling their fans:
“It is with great sadness that we confirm that John Henson, son of Jim and Jane Henson and brother to Lisa, Cheryl, Brian and Heather, died at age 48 of a sudden massive heart attack on Friday, February 14, while at home with his daughter. John served as a shareholder and board member of The Jim Henson Company. He leaves two daughters, Katrina (15) and Sydney (10) and his wife Gyongyi. A private service is being planned.”
Tina Maze of Slovenia won her second gold medal of the Games in the women’s giant slalom on Tuesday, while the American skier Mikaela Shiffrin failed to make the podium.
if you click through, i like the black glasses with the black google glass. you can barely see it.
Less sci-fi, more style: the redesigned Google Glass looks more like classic eyewear than something a cyborg would sport. Contrary to rumor, Warby Parker had nothing to do with the redesign; it was done in house by Google Glass's lead industrial designer Isabelle Olsson and her team.
Woah that would be huge. And kinda sad...it's such a part of their culture. but it's hard on the wok day - my spanish colleagues work 9:30 - 9 usually, when most europeans do not work that long.
A pro-efficiency movement is pushing the country be more productive by aligning with Europe’s 9-to-5 schedule.
and one more thing....slovenia has 6 medals! 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The men’s 15-kilometer mass start biathlon at the Sochi Games was rescheduled for Tuesday, and the men’s snowboard cross will go straight to the finals, also on Tuesday.
Apparently Jim Morrison isn’t the only American-bred cultural icon buried in Pere Lachaise. A friend emailed me this photo he took in the cemetery with the caption, “Pauvre Pepe!”
(Last) week's link roundup.
