The Good Plate

Archive for August, 2012

Recipes in this Post

• Flank Steak Tacos

I love to find uncommon cuts of meat on sale. I found a flank steak that I was planning on stuffing, and put it in the refrigerator, hoping that it would get cool enough to warrant heating the kitchen to cook it.
Alas, that did not happen, and to prevent that meat from getting freezer burn, I decided to make tacos out of it.

I won’t use taco seasoning packets, they are full of fillers, salt and preservatives. Why pay for that stuff when you can make it at home – without all the nasty fillers and preservatives.

The great debate about tortillas. When Hernán Cortés invaded the Aztecs, they were using corn tortillas. Wheat tortillas are a relatively recent import. Their popularity was driven by the low cost of inferior grades of wheat flour and by their ability to keep and ship well. Wheat tortillas don’t have much flavor, and are probably popular because their appeal to bland American taste buds. But, those taste buds need to change, as corn is a lot healthier than wheat, as you can see in the comparison table.

Read the rest of this entry »

Recipes in this Post

• Baked Julia Apples

I used to love watching Julia Child on The French Chef when it was on Saturday afternoons on my local PBS station. I think Julia Child kind of reminded me of my mother, they were both tall, loved to talk, and were never afraid to take anything head on. My mother was a good cook, taught me the basics, and let me prepare meals when I was 10. Sadly, my mother died when I was 15, but left me in the capable hands of my Aunt Georgia, Grandmother, and Julia Child.

Today would have been Julia Child’s 100th birthday, and I thought I should share a recipe which is inspired by Baked Alaska Apples that I watched Julia make on the show.

Read the rest of this entry »

So, yesterday, August 9, 2012, there was a DDOS attack on the servers that host The Good Plate. This is the second time this has happened. This is not something for which the hosting provider is at fault – this is some miscreant doing damage.

Have you ever heard of a DDOS attack – it’s a Distributed Denial Of Service. Basically, thousands of computer send simultaneous requests to a single server, and there are so many requests that the server is unable to respond, and has to shut down until the attack stops.

It’s as if you’re in a room with a hundred people, and they are all asking you different questions at the same time. I don’t know about you, but sometimes, I feel like I’m under at DDOS attack when Spane starts asking me “Mom, why does this? Mom, why does that? Mom! Mom! Mom!”. You know how it goes if you have kids.

Read the rest of this entry »

Recipes in this Post

• Crab Shrimp Cakes
• Louis Sauce

When I was a little girl living in Germany, my mother used to get frozen crab cakes. I loved them. A few years ago, I found a package of Zatarain’s crab cake mix, and I made it with imitation crab. Yup, you heard me right – imitation crab.

Here’s my thoughts on imitation crab. What is imitation crab? Imitation crab is made from surimi, a concoction of fish, usually pollock, a binder and flavoring. I never think of imitation crab as crab, I think of it as Krab.

I went to the market yesterday, and stood there thinking about what to make for Friday Food. Krab was on sale, and there was a nice package of small bay shrimp on sale as well. Since I was going to be making this for Amber’s family as well as mine, I got both, and thought I would mix them together.

Read the rest of this entry »