I have gas...

... natural gas that is. Which means...

NEW STOVE!!!

After almost 4 years of living in this house, we finally got a gas stove. Which also means...

New cookware!!! Well technically they were a wedding gift... 3 years ago... I just couldn't use them on the crappy stove that came with the house. It just wouldn't be right.

Ooooo shiny. Each pan came with an "inspected by" tag with a person's name on it. Christi and I debated whether or not they were actual people.

So that's it for today. New stove, new pans, I have gas.

Parents, do your kids a favor...

Alright, before I go into this rant we need to get a few things clear.

I know I don't have kids of my own. I know I don't understand "how difficult" they can be until I have my own. This is my opinion. Let's proceed.

Monday was the 4th of July. I spend apart of the day at my parents annual 4th of July BBQ. At this party were a bunch of my younger cousins one of which is a toddler. His mom asked me to watch him for a minute so she could go do something. Sitting in front of me was a plate full of raw vegetables that I had munching on to get away from the normal chips, hotdogs, potato salad etc. (I did eat my grandma's fried chicken though cause duh). As he sat on my lap he mentioned that he wanted something to eat. Naturally, being the lazy ass that I am, I offered him the plate of vegetables.

He looked at me very confused. I had seen him most of the time earlier in the day gnawing on a chicken wing. I asked him if he wanted to munch on these. He wasn't sure what some of them were. After about 10 minutes. I got him to try 3 different colors of bell peppers and cherry tomatoes. Guess what? He freakin' loved them (not a fan of the carrots but 4/5 isn't bad)! As his mom came back and tried to put on his shoes he kept running back to the plate for more veggies. In shock she announced to the people around "Oh my gosh! You're eating tomatoes? Ben got him to eat what else?!" Once he got his shoes on and before he left, he looked at me and asked me if he could take the rest of the vegetables home so he could eat them later. Parents, do me a favor...

Teach your kids about good healthy foods and give them a variety for God's sake!

I don't care how "hard it is" to get your kids to eat other things than the stuff they're "used to". Start them out young. Feed them raw fruits and vegetables as often as you can. When they're older make them eat new things. They'll eat if they're hungry enough they'll eat it.. If they refuse to eat it, oh well. A kid missing a meal isn't going to hurt them. I remember when I was a kid. If I didn't like what my mom made for dinner, I either ate it or I didn't eat.

I notice that kids seem to be given a lot more say in their own upbringing these days. What ever happend to "do what I tell you to do". I'm not saying that kids shouldn't be able to make any decisions. Just not decisions they're not mature enough to make themselves. For example... it bugs me when I hear parents ask their kid open ended questions like, "what do you want to eat?" and then feel bad when they tell the kid, "no you can't have chocolate cake... no... n... fine." What the hell?! (sure this is an exaggeration, but you get my point) Sorry, I got a bit side tracked. I'll save that for another time when parents piss me off.

Again, I know I don't have kids of my own. I know I don't understand "how difficult" they can be until I have my own. You have a kid. That's your first priority and it's your responsibility for its eating habits. When I have a kid, I'll be damn sure to remember that and take full responsibility for my kids healthy eating habits.

Please expose your kids to different kind of foods. Stop feeding your kids hot dogs for dinner all the time. I don't care if it's the stupid Gerber shit that's not really a hot dog. Make your kid some real food. It took me less than 15 minutes to get my cousin to try and like a few new vegetables. Do a favor for your kid ok?

Foodies

You were waiting for it, and here it is. My first angry post.

When I meet people, I try and not throw out there right away that I cook and teach cooking for a living. Because bad things can happen. It brings out this monster in them... it brings out the foody in them.
In the last 10+ years Food Network and celebrity chefs have made cooking "cool". Thus creating the know-it-all, pretentious, irritating as fuck, "foody wannabe". You know who I'm talking about. The douche in the office that went to Canalis just because he could afford it, or the lady that had a cooking/wine pairing party.
Social networking sites, blogs, youtube, etc. have made it even worse. Now these idiots can take pictures of the stupid food they're so proud of, or blog their restaurant reviews. Anyone can do it... and this is my point.

Stop trying to sound cool because you "experienced a wonderful onion flan" over the weekend. Onion flan huh? Do you know what onion flan is? It's onion pudding. It's something that we come up with that costs us 15cents to make and that we can charge you 15 dollars to eat.

Don't try and describe a dish's flavor "savory" (unless you're actually talking about the herb)  or has "Asian flavors" (Asia is the biggest fucking continent on the planet with a shit-ton of different countries which all have different flavors and cooking methods! Do you think Indian food and Korean food taste the same? Dumbass.) . Do you know how dumb you sound? It's like if I were to describe a car. "Yeah, it's black, and it has four wheels. The engine is BIG. It has some horse power. It's an import."

Know what you're talking about. Don't pretend to know what you're talking about. More importantly I don't think most people care what you cooked for dinner and damn well really don't care to see a picture of it. "You made salmon last night?! AND you put it on a plate?! You took a picture?! Wow, there it is... a piece of salmon on a plate. Way to go." If I ever take a picture of a plate it's only so I have the memory of how to do it (or how awful it was, which I've done a few times for my entertainment). I won't post it to show everyone. Food has been around forever. Cooking has been around just about as long as food has. It's nothing new. It's like if I took a picture of the shit I took over the weekend like it was something special.

Look, don't get me wrong. I love that some people are proud what they've accomplished. That's great! Keep cooking! It's the people pretend they know something when they don't. More so I hate the people that think they're super cool because they cooked something and put it on a plate. Learn about food. Learn what you're talking about. Do it because you actually like it and not just try to impress people by it. Anyone can do it. It's not that hard. Why do you think I can do it?

I think it irritates me not because I do this for a living and people are wrong. A lot. I think it's more because people seem to be bragging about what they cooked, showing they can afford to go to the most expensive restaurants, or just pretending to have more knowledge than they do. People do it with other things too (film, music, beer, video games)... and it pisses me off.

It's just food, people. Sure there's an art to it. Sure you can be creative. Sure it can feed your soul and build wonderful memories. But remember it's just there to nourish your body and... it's just going to be shit tomorrow.