Posts by Adam Zolkover

Caramelized Pork Bits With Broken Rice

   Adam Zolkover
Caramelized Pork Bits with Broken Rice

A thing called caramelized pork bits may, at first blush, seem a bit off the beaten path. But it makes perfect sense if you understand how it came about.

It used to be, occasionally, that I would pop out here with a recipe that was meant to be a weeknight dinner. I would make fried rice, or pasta with collards, or macaroni and cheese — stuff that could be thrown together, all filling and comforting, in something less than an hour from start to finish. It was the pickling that initially distracted me from making those kinds of posts (and so many others, too). And then — as Sarah likes to tell me — I got sidetracked from the whole project of making any kind of entrées for the blog at all.

The Single Greatest Virtue of the Toaster Oven

   Adam Zolkover

Nobody ever asks me about the merits of toaster ovens relative to the pop-up variety. But it turns out I have an opinion on the matter. There is one key application that makes the toaster oven undeniably superior to its less capable cousin. And that is toasted cheese on bread.

The Single Greatest Virtue of the Toaster Oven

By clicking through this site to Amazon.com, you too can be the proud owner of a proper, fully cheese-capable toaster oven. Which is a thing that I would highly recommend.

A Brief, Literary Explanation of the Impending Debt Ceiling Confrontation

   Adam Zolkover

“I couldn’t forgive him them or like him them but I saw that what he they had done was, to him them, entirely justified.  It was all very careless and confused.  They were careless people, Tom and Daisy Congress — they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made….”

F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby (1925).

The Skillful Cook, by Mary Harrison

   Adam Zolkover

Lately, in my idle moments, I have spent some time poking around on Project Gutenberg’s cookery bookshelf. I’ve found — what, with the distracting news out of D.C. and the semester’s crush of grading — that I’m in serious need of inspiration. And considering that my teaching schedule is such that most nights I don’t get home until well after my usual dinner hour, simply being in the kitchen at suppertime doesn’t really cut it.

So I’ve thought to myself of late: what would get my cooking juices flowing better than a collection of public domain cookbooks, mostly from before 1923, published as primers for housewives and handbooks for the help? What’s better than hundreds of recipes that I never would have considered making on my own, attached to a healthy dose of culinary cultural history?

Twice Cooked’s New Look

   Adam Zolkover

Twice Cooked got a facelift. Rewritten from scratch, and now based on the fabulous Thematic framework, this version is richer in features, has better typography, and should load noticeably faster than its predecessor. That said: it is new. So I’d like to ask all of you (dear readers!) an important favor. If you notice oddities in the website — bits that don’t load, or don’t load quite right — please do shout at me on Twitter and let me know. This new theme has seen a lot of tweaking and testing. But I’m just one guy with a blog, and sometimes stuff does slip through the cracks.

The Government Shutdown, in a Single Quotation

   Adam Zolkover
The Government Shutdown, in a Single Quotation

There’s more than enough recrimination to go around, this morning, for the Federal Government shutdown.

Speaker John Boehner took to the floor of the House of Representatives, last night, and tried out his impression of President Obama (video) — literally; I kid you not — who apparently told the speaker on the telephone: I’m not going to negotiate. I’m not going to negotiate — I’m not going to do this.

Fermented Red Hot Pepper Sauce

   Adam Zolkover
Fermented Red Hot Pepper Sauce, like tuong ot toi

I have to admit: I have an ulterior motive in making this particular post at this particular moment. Red hot pepper sauce is yet another pickle — one last ferment in what, one month ago, I called a systematic exploration of the nutritionally rich, biologically diverse, sometimes slightly stinky genre of fermented foods.

I said then that the series was part of the run-up to my pickling workshop. And my pickling workshop, dear readers, is this Saturday, September 28.

Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

   Adam Zolkover
Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Bread is really important.

The English word companionship derives from a Latin compound — cum and panis — meaning with bread. The word that we use to describe pay for work, salary, also comes from Latin — from salis, meaning salt. But when we’re trying to be cool, or casual, or colloquial (the three c’s!), we might tell people that we’ve made some dough this week — or that we’ve made some bread.

For a large swath of the population, Sunday mornings are all about getting up, jumping into one’s best clothes, heading to church to ask for bread. Forgive us our tresspasses, Christians intone (though some intone debts, instead), and give us this day our daily bread.

Help Replace the Twice Cooked Camera

   Adam Zolkover
Help Replace the Twice Cooked Camera

The end, dear friends, is nigh. After three and a half years of daily use — after tens of thousands of photographic exposures, and no small amount of detrimental exposure to flour, hot oil, and all manner of other kitchen nastiness — the trusty Twice Cooked camera, the little Olympus that could, is coughing, and sputtering, and well on the road to snapping its last shot.

Roasted Butternut Squash Rings with Marinated Onions

   Adam Zolkover
Roasted Butternut Squash Rings with Marinated Onions

Riddle me this, dear readers: what’s the worst thing about making a butternut squash?

It’s not the taste, obviously. Butternut squash is sweet and savory, and delicious. It caramelizes in the oven, lending it a complex smoky flavor that’s a little bit pumpkin on the surface, with a bubbling current of applewood smoked bacon — and maybe maple — somewhere down below. I’d venture to assert that many of the best pumpkin pies are in fact done in butternut squash. And the best pumpkin soups, too. The only problem with them is … is …