Terminally Delicious

A friend whom I visited a few years back in Philadelphia took me to Reading Terminal Market - what a place!  I only wish I'd taken many more and better-quality pictures.

MEIN GOTT!!  LOOK AT THE CHEESE COUNTER!  LOOK AT IT!!

More history here.

And - should you find yourself in New Hope, PA sometime, check out Gerenser's Exotic Ice Cream.  I recommend the African violet highly.

Pesto Festo

There are about 5,378 pesto recipes out there.  Trust me; I've counted.  Here's the one I use most often because it's easy and consistently good - it goes well on sourdough toast, as seen here, or pizza, or hot or cold pasta.  I could eat this stuff ALL the time.  OK, maybe by the objective look of it it's got a face only the cook could love, but knowing how tangy and delicious it is, how could you not think this is beautiful:

Basic Pesto

1/4 pine nuts (can substitute almonds or walnuts)
4 cloves garlic
2 cups packed fresh basil leaves
2 tablespoons fresh oregano and/or thyme, leaves stripped from stem (you could also add in fresh parsley or sage)
7 tablespoons olive oil
generous 1/4 cup finely grated Parmesan or Asiago cheese
1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
pinch salt

Put pine nuts and garlic cloves on a tray and toast under broiler.  Keep a close eye as they can go from perfect to cinders in a flash!

Throw all ingredients in a food processor or blender and process until smooth, or whatever consistency you like.

And that's it.

 

Variations:  add 1/4 cup oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, or some spinach leaves and a teaspoon of lemon juice, or substitute the plain olive oil for an infused variety.

Two hours later... IT LIVES AGAIN!

And For You Literalists Out There...

Eye Lasers

That's what I've been missing.

 

 

 

 

 

From this person.

Spiced Nectarine Cake

Spiced Nectarine Cake

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, room temperature
3/4 cup + 3 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon apricot liqueur (or peach, or orange)
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1.25 cups flour
5 medium nectarines (about 1.75 pounds) halved, each half cut into four slices
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon allspice

Preheat oven to 350F.  Generously butter a 9" springform pan.  Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until fluffy.  Add 3/4 cup sugar and beat until blended.  Beat in eggs one at a time, then lemon juice and peel, and liqueur.  Beat in flour until smooth.  Spread batter in pan with a spatula.

Arrange nectarine slices atop batter in concentric circles to cover completely; press lightly to adhere.  Mix remaining sugar with cinnamon and allspice in a small bowl and sprinkle over cake.

Bake until cake is golden brown and tester inserted into centre comes out clean, about 1 hour.  Cut around cake to loosen; remove pan sides.  Serve slightly warm or at room temperature.

I had both white and yellow nectarines and alternated them in a pattern.  You can use whichever you like, or even plums or pluots instead.

We Need A Really Catchy Name... I Know! FOOD STICKS!!

Pillsbury Food Sticks... plain name for plain food.  Or make that "food."  Purportedly it was food; just not as we earthlings knew it.  Yet I loved these as a kid, even though they were, in retrospect, entirely without merit or value as far as presentation, look, or mouth-feel.  For a child who subsisted mainly on these, Chef Boyardee canned ravioli, cereal, and grilled cheese sandwiches, it's amazing I ever learned to appreciate decent food.  Or maybe that's exactly why I do.

Chocolate and orange were my faves.  Peanut butter, not so much.  I don't remember the choc mint, and that's the one I might have liked best.  Mmmm, I can practically taste that modelling clay consistency right now! (teehee: save SEVEN WHOLE CENTS!!)

Swank advertising campaign, too:

Jell-OMG!!!1

Normally I'd be trying to whet your appetite, but sometimes there are things so heinous, such abominations that make the senses revolt in an almost primeval manner, that the pain must be shared as some sort of species memory.  Savoury Jell-O is one of these.  What fiendish mind devised this detestable mucilaginous foulness?  Yes, I know savoury aspics have a long and illustrious, if rather icky, history, but they reached a nauseating zenith in the 50s and 60s thanks to the fine food scientists at Jell-O and the luridly-coloured advertisements of the day.

 

The olives in that one look like eyes staring back at you, imploring you to eat it any put it out of its infernal misery - but little do you know that the true misery begins when you take a bite of this gelatinous cheesy pimentoey glorp!  This is the George Romero of gelatins.

Mayo, fish, vinegar and gelatin... the only thing that could improve upon that would be salad dressing, olives and celery.  :-/  Green grotto?  You'll be feeling green and grotty, I'd wager.  "Fine foods needn't be expensive!"  Or... fine, even.  The 'food' part may be debatable, too...

Yes.  It makes "something."  It's called shit. 

 

Meat goo and grapes.  Save me.

They look so pretty and colourful until you realise what they're made out of.  And then the horror never quite leaves you.

 

Just because you can put anything into Jell-O doesn't mean you should.

 

This thing suffers from a bad case of ring mold.