Sous Vide or not Sous Vide? That is the Question.

Ok, my friends. Of all things, I've been reading up on this crazy sous vide tech(nique) and I'm a little intrigued. If you haven't heard of or read up on it, here's the gist: seal the food to be cooked in an airless plastic bag and immerse it in water that is at the final internal temperature you want the food to reach. No overcooking, no undercooking, no loss of juices or flavors.

 I'm also unwilling to shell out $200+ for yet another kitchen gadget that I may or may not use beyond the initial experimentation stage. For instance, this little darling runs $237, used. I like my toys, but please.

2 Bean and Cilantro Protein and Fiber Bomb Salad

It's been sweaty style hot lately, at least for Central Pennsylvania. I'm usually fine with sweating over the wok or counteracting the flames from the grill with liberal doses of Duclaw Brewing products, but sometimes you've had enough. The solution? Salads.

Stay with me, hold on. I enjoy green salads as much as the next guy (meaning sometimes), but if one looks up salad definitions, the main properties seem to be:

• Usually cold, or at least not hot
• Contains vegetables or fruits, not necessarily greens
• Often mixed together
• Dressing

3 Reasons Curry is Great & Easy

 There's nothing quite like a good bowl of steaming curry. I've ordered it at pricy spots in D.C. and at a sweet little local place in PA called Pakha's. My personal fave is the green, cranked up so hot and spicy that I cry as I shovel it into my face. As with many a dish I love, it never occurred to me that I should just make it at home. Then, thanks to my friend Jake and a conversation during one of his barbecues, I found my newest cheap and tasty go to meal.

Art or Science?

Do you want to have a jam session or do you want to write a song? This is the eloquent way a cooking buddy of mine asked the question. It encapsulates the tension between playing in the kitchen, essentially "Throwing food at other food" or creating actual dishes. For a few years I've been a big supporter of innovating, so I thought I fell into the Jam Session/unfettered creativity camp. But then I started thinking--a "dangerous pastime at best," as Gaston from Disney's Beauty and the Beast would say--and realized that innovation and experimentation need a solid grasp on some basics.

Sweet and Spicy Super Thick BBQ Sauce

I went to a BBQ/Solstice/Bonfire this past weekend. It was potluck and other folks were already bringing amazing meats and libations. One guy built a smoker on site for brisket, salmon, and the best smoked pork loin I've ever tasted. I was already bringing cold noodles with peanut sauce, but I felt the need to experiment and hopefully impress.

I figured it was time to make my own BBQ sauce. If you think BBQ sauce is easier to just purchase, please stay with me here. There are some amazing off-the-shelf sauces, no doubt about it. Bone

And Sometimes, You Screw Up

Back at the very 1st post, I said I wouldn't hide the failures. This one was a pretty good one. I was in between things, had a little time before going to a friend's place to grill pork and drink beer. I figured I'd try the classic ramen w/ Greenoodle. The mistakes just piled up:

• I put the egg in before the noodles
• I put the egg in before the water was hot enough to quick cook it
• I put the pork in while the noodles cooked, instead of pre-heating and adding at the end
• I went to get my phone while the gas was still on high and came back to this

It was actually bubbling up above the pan's rim a good inch or three, but I had to turn it down before I could snap a picture. I used too much water as well, so I had little hope left. I resigned myself to strain it and see.

All told, it could have been worse, but by boiling everything together I killed any distinct flavor profiles and was only able to save it as a meal by dropping the habanero sauce bomb. I did eat it, but I wouldn't have asked anyone else too. 

Interlude - New Wok

Years ago, I had a wok. I loved it. It got left behind when I moved to Maui, so I hope whomever got to keep it loves it as well. The heat distribution in a good wok beats out everything else and makes it awesome for use as both a pan and, when needed, a pot. Only problem with the one I had back then was that the handle was wood, so I couldn't put it into the oven. My new toy solves that little issue.

This 13 inch wonder from Excel Steel is lightweight cast iron and fully oven safe. With those riveted steel handles and the flat bottom, I'm expecting my Greenoodle experiments to be far more fun than I originally expected. Perhaps best of all, I can use it with my induction plate, so temperature control is going to be an exercise in precision.

Pepper Experiment #1

I have a tradition with my friend Sarah. It may not sound like much, but it's a great time, every time. We get together in the afternoon then eat and binge watch a TV series on Netflix. We started with ordering pizza delivery but have realized that it's more fun to cook. We usually get through an hour or so of TV, then play in the kitchen as a break. Yesterday we made it through a full season of Californication and a big bag of calamari. 
As I mentioned in an earlier post, one of my favorite methods while cooking is to take a tried and true recipe or dish and switch up one or two ingredients, just to see how it turns out. Well, yesterday Sarah specifically asked if I still had any of my Scorpion Oil and garlic, so I knew where we'd be starting. I love the speed and texture of stir fry; it seemed like a perfect fit with a bunch of calamari and a few dollops of frozen pesto. Of course we'd be throwing in fresh veggies like bell pepper, yellow onion, and stake tomato. A fast variation on baked sweet potato "fries" was a natural side.

Cauliflower and Mushroom Bang Up

Meat, while not necessarily easy, is what most folks think of when they hear "Man and Food." I get it; I really like marinating, rubbing, brining and cooking meat any number of ways (especially pork). Since that's the obvious, I'm attempting to branch out. I read a few versions of this breaded and baked Cauliflower w/ Bang Bang Sauce online, so I figured I'd fiddle with it and make my own version.

A few quick notes on the ingredients: Most of the versions I read on Allrecipes or Yummly used 1/4 cup of mayonnaise, but I like to avoid that if I can. I substituted the greek yogurt in the picture, and just ate the little packet of almonds that was attached. Also, none of the versions had mushrooms, but I love mushrooms and had some on hand so I figured "Why not?" Last, a little plug for Aldi supermarket. Anytime I need ingredients for an experiment, I go there. Cheap. Don't spend too much if it might not come out perfect.

Step 1: Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Oil your baking pan or lay down parchment paper.

Step 2: Whisk the eggs into a wash and make the cauliflower bite sized. Pull the stems from the mushrooms.

Step 3: Dip veggie pieces in the egg wash then coat with panko bread crumbs. It gets difficult if too much egg wash gets into the panko, but you can clump it on if needed.

Step 4: Place the pan on the middle rack for 20 minutes or until the outsides get crispy and brown.

Step 5: While the veggies bake, mix up 2 Tbsp Sweet Chili Sauce, 2 Tbsp honey, 1 Tbsp Hot Sauce, 1/4 cup yogurt. This sauce is a little spicy, a little more sweet. I'm thinking I might add some Paprika or Black Pepper for more bite next time.

Step 6: When the baking is done, plate the veggies and drizzle with the Bang Bang. Keep a little on the side to dip in if you like.

 All in all it came out pretty tasty. I did eat the whole plate, but I have to admit, the mushrooms overcooked some and were somewhat mushy. The cauliflower still had a wee bit of crunch and great texture. Good snack or appetizer, but not really a meal.

As this blog is still under some construction, I'll have the recipe up on a separate tab soon.

The Bare Necessities Part 1 - Ingredients

I love cooking. I love the whole process, from picking out ingredients at a market all the way to plating the dish and making it look pretty before digging in and destroying any semblance of presentation. I don't always have the time to take all the steps in sequence and let's face it: sometimes it isn't about crafting a gustatory masterpiece for the ages.

Sometimes it's Wednesday night and I've got maybe 30 minutes if I'm lucky and I'm hungry. When this happens, I've got to have the basics on hand or I'll be stuck with a protein shake and a banana. When I say the basics, it's those items that I find myself using more than half the time. They change dinner from simple sustenance to enjoyable eating.

Lets look at just a few to start:

1. Oil: It's the starting point for so many quick and dirty meals. First thing into the pan (or wok or pot or baking sheet). It's that little buffer between some nice browning and burnt. It doesn't

Whatcha Got?

Sometimes you have a plan. Sometimes you actually decide on a protein, a starch, and a veggie while planning a meal. Sometimes (ok, a few times) you follow a recipe exactly as you find it.

This is not one of those times.

"Whatcha Got" is the evolution of the broke college student attempting to make dried ramen noodles into something a bit less banal by adding whatever they can scrounge, whether it is a sliced up hot dog, the last egg in the mini fridge, or just a handful of croutons. It is often soup, chili, or something in between. It most definitely sits comfortably under the category of One-Dish Dinners and can feed anywhere from just you to everyone who followed you home from that crazy night that started with karaoke and ended by lurching into the Uber driver's Escalade.

I slapped together a single serve Whatcha Got a few weeks ago.

Step 1: Just open the cupboard and pull out cans. I found red and white kidney beans, a small can of

Don't Name Your Business After a Pepper

Amish. Hipster. Burritos. If that doesn't give sufficient hints as to which quick serve restaurant I worked for, nothing will. Since I'd been eating at this tasty local chain for years, when a friend told me he could pretty much hand me a job there, I jumped on it. I figured it'd be a cool environment and the shop had a far better kitchen than my apartment, so I would have a chance to experiment with recipes. Having done retail and service before, I was expecting the usual hassles and patterns, but I planned to move up and have my own shop. I did.

Tangent time: If you haven't worked on the other side of the counter at a food service job, there are a couple things you should be aware of.

1. Asking the near minimum wage employee "How fresh are your ingredients?" is not only a hassle during the 16 seconds she has to construct your meal during the crazy pressure of the lunch rush, it is also a somewhat unanswerable question. Without specifically naming an ingredient, she has no idea what sort of answer you will be satisfied by. The tomatoes are fresher than they will be tomorrow;

Interlude - Scorpion Oil

Not in any way like snake oil. All I did was cram 5 dried Trinidad moruga scorpion peppers and 4 fresh garlic cloves into an empty vodka bottle and fill it up with medium quality extra virgin olive oil.

That was 3 days ago. I've been dipping baguette bits into it all night. Just right.

Before the Meal, Before the Prep

Welcome to the newest and most honest food and cooking, self-teaching and innovating blog yet. I'm going to let you all in on the dishes I love and the attempts I make to go further than I have with making them. I'm not going to hide the failures; I just hope the successes are tasty enough to make them better.

For those who know me IRL or from social media and ended up here: Thanks for showing up! I'll try to keep it interesting. For those who have no clue about who this Professor Maybe guy is, I'll give some quick history. I grew up on my dad's small but functional farm in Massachusetts and I know this influenced the sort of foods that I go to reflexively. When your dad has a deal with the local donut shops to pick up their day olds to feed his drove of pigs, you learn to love pork and donuts. Fresh goat's milk and eggs that were inside a hen until this morning were an everyday thing as was