food

The kids started getting interested in making hot sauce. We’ve made a few batches (with varying levels of success). This one turned out… alright. The flavors don’t quite meld and it’s rough around the edges… but let’s be honest, neither I nor the children know what the heck we are doing. Maybe it will get better over time!

The kid who made this hot sauce loves it on his eggs, and I guess that’s all that matters.

So my canonical cheeseburger has:

I made some emergency gravy earlier this week and posted about it on Twitter. That got me thinking of writing down my "theory of gravy" and how I make it. This is not going to be a traditional recipe, as much as it's going to be a series of guidelines on how I make gravy. Hope you enjoy it.

What equipment do you need to make gravy? You need a pan of some sort. And a whisk. 



Gravy is a combination of four things:

Maruchan discontinued their tomato flavored ramen in 2003. It was one of my favorite flavors, and every few years I think of it fondly. 

Last year I had an idea on how I could recreate the flavor. It involved tomato powder, but I had to buy a whole mess of tomato powder and I wasn't sure about doing that for a single test.

I introduced my daughter to Thai chili peppers last night. She's one and a half.

Let me explain.

Couple of days ago I made the Hawaiian Chili Pepper Water. Yesterday I used the remaining Thai and cayenne chili peppers from the garden to start a basic fermented pepper mash. I seeded the peppers and chopped them up, and this is where our story begins.

Inspired by It's Alive with Brad Leone I picked up a copy of Firey Ferments from the library.

Blue Barn, Corn Fritters: Some reviewers found these to be too blue cheesy, but today I found them to be tasteless! Good sauce though, which is nice because that's the only thing with flavor. If they come back next year, I will give them one more chance, in the hopes of getting to that blue cheese heaven.

San Felipe, Fish Tacos: Been getting these for a few years now, and I have to say, each year they get more disappointing. I won't be getting them again next year.

Here is how I noticed that going wheat free helped me out. I like cooking, but only on a creative basis. I have to be in the mood for it. If my mind is creatively elsewhere, I want to show up where food is, eat food, and get back to creating. So for a time, a large number of my meals were "Open can of southwest flavored canned tomatoes, eat with chips, done."