Food Network Says I Need a Clear Culinary Point of View

Well, they haven't said it to me, but they say it to everyone (all the time) on The Next Food Network Star. So I guess I should let you know what my "culinary point of view" is.

I love to eat. I always have; I always will. So I guess somewhere along the line when I was a child I figured out that cooking is a good hobby for someone who loves to eat. As far as I can remember, I have loved to cook. As a kid, I remember watching PBS on Saturdays to catch Julia Child and Graham Kerr.

Anyway, as I have gotten older, my interest in foods has broadened (like my waistline - har har) and now include growing and sourcing my food. I love to shop farmers markets. I subscribe to a CSA. I grow some stuff for myself. And I freeze stuff like crazy during the summer so I can have 'nearly' fresh stuff during the winter.

So I guess my "culinary point of view" is that I like to cook foods that are local and seasonal. I think things taste best whe I grow them. Or when a farmer I know grows them. That being said, I live in Missouri, and I have no intent on giving up lemons and limes, or pineapples and bananas just because they don't grow here. But I do try my best to think about where my food comes from and who is growing it.

Why "Buttermilk Grosses Me Out"?

Mostly because it does. I mean, I have always found chunky milk to be repulsive, but I remember the day that I stopped buying buttermilk. I had purchased a rather large quantity because there was no small option at the grocery store. And I made the biscuits (or whatever it was that I bought it to make) and the buttermilk sat in the fridge for a week. So I say to The Captain (my boyfriend) "hey, how do you know when buttermilk goes bad?" And he says, "I have no idea." So I googled it. Ugh. Gross.

So buttermilk is milk that is already soured. And everyone was like "Oh it lasts forever. It's already gone sour. Just shake it up til the chunks get small enough and you can use it til its gone." Well, I'm not hip to dairy products that are already bad or that last forever. So I no longer buy buttermilk. If A recipe calls for it, I sour a cup of whole milk myself with the juice of half a lemon. Cause lemons DON'T gross me out.

Mexican Coke

I have a bajillion things to do today and I am in the basement taking pictures of a Coke box. Brilliant. Anyway, I thought I would share my love for Coca Cola that is hecho en Mexico. I had always heard about Mexican Coke and Passover Coke and how they have (OMG) real sugar. I finally found a source for the real stuff over on Cherokee. A store called Latino Americana. This stuff tastes just like the coke we had when we were kids (uh, yeah my mom let me drink soda). Anyway, its crazy good. Its crisp and refreshing and not sickeningly sweet. When my store was out of it last week, a friend pointed out that they carry it at Sam's Club. So I picked up a case. I'm good for about month now, but I will miss my amigos down on Cherokee.

Oh, the bottles from Latino Americana SAY that they are returnable, but if you take them back, they will look at you like you have two heads.

Refresco! (Ha I typed this thinking it meant "refreshing" or something like that in Spanish because the bottles say that. Turns out that is the name of the bottling company.)

Starbucks Banana Walnut Bread

If you have been to Starbucks recently, you most likely have seen the recipe cards that they are giving out for Banana Walnut Bread. They say "Hi, we are making a change by using simpler recipes and taking out artificial ingredients...." I'm on board with that, so I decided to give the recipe a try this morning.

First of all, its a little chilly here this morning, and we have the windows open. So I am wearing a poncho that I bought at the Hispanic Festival last year. Let me be the first to tell you, cooking in a poncho is a bad idea. While I was mixing up the bread, I had it flung behind me, in a kind of Superman fashion and that was fine, but while I was checking the bread with a tooth pick, it was falling all over the place and I am lucky I didn't catch myself of fire.

I thought the technique on this bread was kind of odd. Usually, you mix the dry, mix the wet, and mix them together. This recipe has you mix the dry, mix other dry stuff with wet stuff, and then mix that together, and then add the rest of your wet stuff. It felt counterintuitive and like I was going to end up with overmixed bread.

Anyway, the bread ended up being very moist, but lacking a certain richness. Maybe my bananas weren't ripe enough. It would probably be really delicious slathered up with some butter. I might try that on the next piece.

Here's the recipe if you want to try it yourself:http://www.starbucks.com/retail/assets/pdfs/SUM209-07901_RecipeCard_1.pdf