This week Cub had broccoli heads on sale at two for three dollars. As you may already know, I’m a sucker for cheap food and was thrilled to snap up that deal. It’s always nice to have at least a few vegetarian entrees in the rotation not only for health but to save some cash as well, even though we have about 30 pounds of meat in the freezer.

Growing up we did a lot of steamed vegetables (especially broccoli) and while I was always a vegetable eater and fan (my first words were not “Momma”, “Dadda”, “Doggy” or “fuck”, believe it or not, but “green beans”) I have to admit, looking back…steamed veggies were kinda boring (no offense Mom; you’re a great cook and half of my current inspiration, as you well know) so I’m always looking for something that is new, interesting and easy. Extra emphasis on easy! Anything I can whip up after work for Kim and I with a minimum of prep time is bonus for me. It’s tough not to settle into a routine and eat the same old shit day in and day out but after a while you get tired of chicken breast, vegetables and a starch. Thankfully I have been watching and reading a ton of food related shows and sites trying to find new and interesting stuff to keep changing things up for our dinner menus.

Of all the stuff I check out on the web and TV, my most favorite is what’s available on BBC America. I am a big fan of Gordon Ramsay’s shows that appear on that network. The horrendous garbage that shows up on Americanized versions of his BBC shows such as Fox’s Hell’s Kitchen or Kitchen Nightmares are nothing more than staged comedy acts with creative editing to end up with a completely different end result than reality. BBC America’s versions, while still entertaining and at times even vile, are at least somewhat true to reality and are far more interesting to me than their American counterparts. I am really enjoying The F-Word because of the variety, the cool recipes he shows with such ease and well, his choice of language ;)

One day Kim and I were watching one of his shows, I’m not sure which now, probably Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares, but he asked one of the chefs to use a bunch of ingredients laid out in front of them to make a broccoli soup. The other chef spent quite a bit of time prepping and cooking something that ended up a runny, puke green colored and apparently boring concoction while Ramsay whipped up a beautifully colored Kelly-green soup with three main ingredients: water, salt and broccoli. For whatever reason his quick recipe stuck in my head for several weeks until those gorgeous heads of broccoli, shipped in from some far away land using tons of fossil fuels and covered in pesticide, ended up in my fridge.

I remembered what Gordon did to get the recipe up and running but I figured a quick Google search wouldn’t hurt and I came up with an excellent five minute YouTube video showing the exact process. While in the YouTube version he uses walnuts and goat cheese, I chose to go with only some shredded mozzarella that we had in the fridge. I must admit that next time, we will definitely have to go with the walnuts and goat cheese because after our first taste it was obvious that they would go perfectly with the dish.

From start to finish (including boiling the water and prepping the broccoli) I would say this recipe took me less than 15 minutes from fridge to plate. If you try it out, especially if you do so with the goat cheese and walnuts, let me know how it went. With the two broccoli heads I used we ended up with enough soup for two bowls pictured above plus enough to freeze for another day. I would guess that this would feed a family of four without too much problem but YMMV.

I must admit that it was quite tasty. Kim thought it needed to get blended some more but I prefer a heartier soup than she does. I think she’s too partial to the “Campbell’s way” (high sodium, low flavor and more water than substance).

I’m looking forward to the next time we make this one.

Yesterday I finally got around to watching American Gangster which I had originally wanted to watch several weeks ago when it was listed in Cub Foods’ Redbox but wasn’t even out on DVD yet. I had been looking forward to seeing American Gangster after watching the trailer on the big screen this past fall. For whatever reason I seem to be drawn to movies about gangsters running drugs such as Goodfellas and New Jack City.

We started watching the movie and after about 50 minutes Kim was already whining that it was boring and moving too slowly. I had to agree that it was a bit of a slow moving movie but I was still enjoying it up until that point. As soon as Kim mentioned that she was bored my mind began to wander and I started thinking about how closely American Gangster followed the plot of New Jack City.

Before tonight, I hadn’t read much on the history of New Jack City, but according to the Wikipedia entry for the film, it is at least partially based on the exploits of Nicky Barnes who was a prominent heroin dealer in NYC during the 70s and also had a role in American Gangster.

To me, American Gangster runs almost exactly to the story line of New Jack City. A relative unknown takes over an apartment building by force to use as a base to manufacture drugs, has a tight knit “family” at the top that control the entire thing, they use extreme force (including shooting someone in the head in broad daylight on a city street) to clear out their turf and then keep a harem of naked women to cut and package the drugs which is only there so that they can get as close to the NC-17 rating as possible without leaving the realm of being R-rated.

After spending the day thinking about American Gangster, I am less and less impressed with it than I was last night. With some real top of the line actors like Denzel and Crowe as opposed to Snipes, Ice-T and Chris Rock you would think that this movie, which was nominated for an Academy Award would have stomped all over New Jack City in every way. In the end, I think that New Jack City wins out in nearly every aspect especially when you take into account that New Jack City was on the screen more than 15 years ago, had relatively small time actors and was an originally an independent film released primarily in urban metropolitan areas after being shown at Sundance produced on just over $8.5 million. With a budget of just under $100 million, I expected a lot more out of American Gangster. The least they could have done was to make the story more interesting and show less of the tits and more of the meat.

I was really looking forward to seeing this film and while it was certainly more entertaining than watching whatever crap Kim has filled the DirecTivo with, it’s not one I think you should run out to rent. If you’re really looking for a good drug lord movie, check out New Jack City instead. I guarantee that you won’t have to worry about it being in stock and you won’t be as disappointed as I was with American Gangster.

Growing up we would visit my grandparents on Long Island in NY fairly frequently. My grandmother, like all I suppose, would have tons of goodies ready to be devoured as soon as I walked in the door. Everything from Entenmann’s donuts and coffee cake to Sno-Caps candy.

One of the items that I remember loving in my teens were the jars of Ba-Tampte picked tomatoes that had the most amazingly tart and spicy flavor and left my mouth watering until the next visit to her house.

For whatever reason, I have been thinking almost non-stop about these tomatoes for over a year. I really did nothing to quell the rumblings and mouth watering until I stumbled across jars available at the Burnsville Byerly’s. I took one home and tasted half of one of the tomatoes. For some reason it just didn’t have the right flavor that I remember from all those years ago.

I called my parents and my mother told me that my grandmother would leave them opened and unrefrigerated on the counter until they would ferment enough to be as tasty as they always were.

I was directed to open the lid but leave it covering the open mouth of the jar. My father suggested that I put the jar in a Tupperware container so that when the reaction really gets going that it doesn’t foam over and cover the counter is garlicy stinking juice. When I asked how long this should take my father replied around 7 to 10 days. Wow, this is too long of a process — especially with it smelling as good as it already does :(

Now, in addition to this, I added quite a bit more fresh ground black pepper and some more garlic to the mixture. I figured that would add some nice flavor to the tomatoes. Yum.

I really find it odd that the jar so clearly states to “Keep Refrigerated” yet I have been directed to do the complete opposite. How many others out there know that the weak and pretty piss poor tasting pickled tomatoes would taste *SO* much better if they would just ignore the jar’s direction and instead would follow my grandmother’s lead?

I’ll keep you all updated on the progress and let you know how they turn out. I really can’t wait. I should probably get another jar in the mean time and start that one going too. Just so I have enough to tide me over until this year long craving subsides :)

See all the pictures from today here (mobile).