Adammight Eat

My Life in Cake

Bon Appetit Poetry: At All Times

vrai-lean-uh:

Part of a new series in which I translate text from recent issues of Bon Appetit into small, self-important poems.

Keeping kosher salt
in a small bowl 
nearby at all times
allows Keller to season
food by feel
developing an intuitive,
tactile sense
of how much salt
he’s adding.

(September 2011, page 125)

Shrimp Avocado Dip et al.

So I’m at this party right now in the bookstore that I work at, some Doctors have rented it out for some yearly meeting they have, probably a budget meeting, and I’m stuck behind the register at the computer “Doctor watching” I guess you could say.  Doctor watching consists of standing here and smiling when the Doctors or Doctor wives flash there eyes over to me and I return with the ever gentlemanly smile.  What I enjoy most about these parties we sometimes host is the catered food.  As you know, I’m kind of getting into food, educating myself to becoming a semi-foodie which is a recent passion that has sprung from being in a bookstore where the dominant section is Cooking.  I have all kinds of cookbooks here and spend hours looking through them.  Maybe not seriously contemplating cooking the more elaborate recipies, but reading them like a novel.  I’ve picked up a few tricks that have stuck with me.  While grocery shopping with my mom last week I found myself rambling on about random facts that I’ve read until she remarked that I was full of useless information.  I don’t think the information is useless, but it probably is.  Stuff like how to tell if your eggs are still fresh by placing them in a bowl of water and seeing if they sit on their side or up and down.  Did you know that there is no difference between a brown egg or a white egg?  I didn’t until recently, though I never usually cook with eggs. 

The two dishes here tonight that have me blogging, is the shrimp and grits, which are the perfectly blended mixture of cheesy grits, shrimp, and fresh bacon bits sprinkled on top.  I’ve cooked shrimp and grits before and you can see pictures on further down my page, but mine didn’t have anything on what they are having at this party.  I guess you can tell the difference between making something for the first time and someone who makes them for a living.  The thing I’m really excited to try next is the shrimp and acovado dip.  I’ve never seen this before and it looks delicious.  I thought it might be a unique dish.  It looks like it consists of shrimp, undrained corn, bits of avocado, and cilantro.  That’s it!  Served with tortilla chips.  Pecan apple squares have made an appearace and of course, the ever popular beef tenderloin mini sandwhiches.  I’ll let you know how my version of the shrimp avocado dip turns out.