The Little Bakery at the Corner of Time

Years ago, when the only train in town let me off in front of the downtown Corner Bakery, I would have coffee and a muffin every day for breakfast.  I loved those light, fluffy chocolate muffins with the little crumbly, crunchy things on top.

Life seemed so much simpler then.  The terror of hurricane Ike was in the past; the town was on the mend. My job seemed secure, and it was pleasant to start the day with a smooth french roast, a sweet chocolate muffin and whatever work of fiction I was entertaining myself with back then.  I remember that it was at the Corner Bakery that started to take my coffee black... It was that delicious.

That was many years ago, and having a bit of freedom from the 2020 situations triggered feelings of nostalgia. I thought I'd stop into a local Corner Bakery and see if it was all I remembered it to me.

Of course the staff followed the safety protocols of the times and wore masks for everyone's protection. It had been six to seven years since my shadow had darkened the entrance of a Corner Bakery, and I was happy to see that they still had the little chocolate muffins I loved so much. I wasn't sure if they would serve me my coffee or if I would serve myself, having seen so many places during The 2020 Happening have to close their self-service bars.  I was happy to see that they let me serve myself, unfortunately, only the Hazelnut Cream was available, the french roast having run out.  Alas, isn't that the sign of these new times, The New Normal of the New World Order... As it says in the Book of the Psalms of Jager:

You can't always get what you want...

but if you try, 

you may find, you get what you need.

Not being a fan of flavored coffee, I took a hesitant sip of the current brew.  It was somewhat weak, as I, an old Devil Dog am used to very strong coffee, but then, after biting the muffin, and washing it down with the coffee, the hazelnut and cream sprang alive with rich, sweetness, like the Summer morning at that train station so many years ago, and for a moment... just one brief moment, it was no longer 2020, and I smiled.

Returning to the blog

 Hello once again blog followers,

Well, as fate would have it, I have a lot more time on my hands, so I thought that I would return to food blogging, because, of course, Keith likes to eat.

Let me know what you may like to see on my blog in the comments.

The Perfect Cookware Quest Continues - Stainless Steel

I continue in my efforts to get Teflon and other concoctions reverse engineered from the Roswell crash out of my life.  If you've read some of my other posts, you will remember that I became quite the advocate of cast iron cookware, and I still think that it is the best, but... of course, there is always some twist.  First off, I'm lazy; I like to cook, and of course, I like to eat, but I do not like to do dishes.  Needles to say, taking proper care of your cast iron is a chore.  If you are into it as a hobby, then it can be a labor of love; on the other hand, if Delphine is waiting for the Dragonborn, there is no Thu'um that cleans, dries and oils your cast iron... Kynesgrove has to wait while you do this yourself... EVERY TIME YOU COOK!!  There is no setting your cast iron to soak while you watch the next episode of Gotham.  Of course, even a guy like me could burry a cast iron skillet in the yard for a year and restore it back to brand new... may I bring your attention back to the first premise... I am lazy...

The second problem that occurred with my cookware quest is that I got a bad tennis elbow injury followed closely by carpal tunnel syndrome.  Using the heavy cast iron aggravated these conditions.  I had to find something lighter, yet similarly Terrestrial in origin... Enter Stainless Steel.

Over the years I have accumulated quite the assortment of cookware... aside from eating, Keith likes to buy stuff... I have a full set of Cuisinart Stainless Steel cookware, so I watched some YouTube and broke out the frying pans to see how non-stick they are.  I heard somewhere that if you know what you are doing, all cookware is non-stick... you will notice that the name of this blog is not "Keith Knows What He Is Doing."  I had some pancake batter left over from breakfast (sadly I used a Teflon coated pan for that)... I began to cook a pancake...  The results were not promising...  The darned thing stuck..

However, clean up was breeze...  So I researched a little more about cooking in stainless steal, and then fried an egg.  I was talking on the phone at the same time and forgot to take pictures, but the result was much better.  I'm going to run more experiments to see how I like it or if I can learn to use it, but I think this may be my next go to type of cookware.  It meets the requirements...

1. It has no poisonous coating.
2. It can be relatively non-stick when used correctly
3. It is light
4. It is easy to care for
5. It can go in the dishwasher
6. Should last a lifetime if not mishandled.

White Chicken Chili?

A few years ago, a friend sent me a package of Buckeye Beans & Herbs White Chicken Chili.  I cooked it back then and am a little sad that I did not blog about it a bit sooner.. The Buckeye Beans & Herbs company is based in Kent WA. and sells a variety of bean and soup products.  I think they may focus on dishes unique to the Northwest.  They may have even once distributed only in the Northwest, but lucky for everyone, it seems they are branching out.  I've seen their products advertised on Target and other stores' web pages, but you can definitely find them here: CLICK HERE.

The first thing I thought was... "White Chili??? What the heck is white chili?"  It intrigued me, and this friend of mine has not steered me wrong with food yet. So, I went and got the additional ingredients required... a large onion, a couple pounds of chicken breast and a can of green chilies... The box calls for mild green chilies, but I couldn't find one with a heat rating.. so I just got a small can of green chilies from the Mexican Food isle... they did not turn out to be what I would call 'mild.'

As I started making it, I thought to myself... "This isn't chili at all."  In Texas, or at least a little deeper south, this would be considered a 'bean' dish.  that got me to thinkin' 'what IS chili?'  Have you really ever thought about it?  Some folks say that chili is a type of stew.  That's what I originally thought, but then I thought of the difference in consistency of chili and stew.  Although you can have a stew with a thick gravy, most of the time, they are much thinner than your typical chili.  Good chili has a thick, almost porridge like consistency... but does the consistency matter?

Some people I've known will put chili powder in left over spaghetti sauce, and eat it as chili.  Is that chili?  If you take spicy spaghetti sauce and put it over spaghetti is it spaghetti and meat sauce or is it Cincinnati's famous 5-way chili?

One web site mentioned that chili was once described by a travel writer (that's what they called bloggers in the 1800's) named J.C. Clopper on a trip to San Antonio.  He mentioned that the poorer residents of the town had to make their meat go a long way.  It didn't matter what they got that day... beef, chicken, you name it... they would chop it into a fine mash and stew it.

There are definitely regional differences when it comes to chili.  A Mexican friend of mine, years ago, after I explained what Texas chili was, said "oh! That's chili beans!"  I was expecting her to say "Chili con carne," but she said "chili beans," and, having been raised on a number of southern bean dishes, all having some sort of meat floating around in them, and most having a very think porridge-like consistency, that's what I was thinking when I sat down before my fragrant bowl of Buckeye Beans & Herbs White Chicken Chili.  "I'm gonna have me a bowl of beans!"

Oh, how wrong I was... even today... several years after the fact... I remember the flavor pouring through my senses when I took that first bite... the green chilies were some of the hottest I've ever eaten, but the heat did not overpower the flavor.  The heat was also the perfect complement to the seasonings of the chili.  Being made with chicken instead of beef added to the uniqueness.  I've had some good chili in my day, but they all sort of merge together in my memory.  None stand out, but I can remember this bowl of white chicken chili... and I remember thinking that it was one of THE best bowls of chili I ever had.

BOO! It's the Spooky Whopper

OOOOOO... Halloween comes a little early, or at least the season has begun, and Burger King starts it off with their Halloween Whopper. 

Yeah, I know.. the pictures in this post are pretty scary... 


I'm not typically a slave of advertising, but when I saw the adds, I had to get one as soon as I could.  The Whopper is quite possibly my favorite burger and I LOVE A1 sauce... I put it on everything from steaks to hot dogs and in sauces and soups.  The add claims that they baked A1 sauce into the bun, and I had my doubts... I mean look at it... it really doesn't look that appetizing... does it?

Well, they were true to their word...with the first bite, it tasted like A1 sauce was slathered on the burger, but it wasn't.  All the A1 flavor was in the bun, and sometimes, when the A1 taste sort of mixed with the ketchup it tasted a little like there was bar-b-q sauce on it too.. but that was some sort of magic flavor illusion.  Yep, Spooky looking burgers and magical flavors... I'd say the Halloween season is off to a delicious start.

WOW... The return of cast iron

For some years now, every Labor Day, a group of friends from around Texas have gotten together and played board games.  We stay in a cabin in the words, gloriously off the grid and away from mobile technology... for the most part.  This cabin belongs to a friend's family and has some fairly old cookware in it... by 'fairly old' I mean vintage cast iron.  Each year I forget to check if it is Wagner, Griswald or neither.  It doesn't really matter, its at least two generations old, and good as new.  When I cook on it, I'm always amazed at how truly non-stick it really is.  I also learn what it means to be non-stick.  Your food won't be slippin' and slidin' all over the place.  You won't have to chase your grilled cheese as it slides away from your spatula... but if you pay attention to what you are doing, your food will not burn or stick and clean up will be a breeze..

After doing some cooking at the cabin, I decided to get back into cast iron.  Readers may remember that I had a fun adventure seasoning my Lodge cast iron skillet some years ago.  I may also have mentioned that at one point the seasoning started to flake off, and I just got fed up, packed it in a box

for my move and forgot about it... too much trouble... That was old ignorance... I took the old lodge out of the box, and, I must have done something right, because the cooking surface was unmarred.  There were a few spots of about 1 millimeter of rust on the outside and handle, but other than that, it looked EXACTLY like it did when I put it in the box years ago.

A little elbow grease and a single layer of re-seasoning and presto... it was back in action.  I used it for a few simple meals this week and was reminded of some of the things I really like about cast iron.  First, it is easy to find pieces made in the U.S.A.  I do not have the room to explain why that's important... but suffice it to say that it is important to me. 

Second, cast iron is indestructible... If anything you do in your kitchen can damage cast iron, you need to consider joining the Avengers.  On that note, you can do what you need to do... you can slam that STAINLESS STEEL spatula against that pan and flip that egg... you can take it off the stove with that sizzling steak and put it in a 500 degree oven... you can take a metal knife and cut into that steak or chicken to see how done it is.  A lot of this would ruin other cookware.. and trust me.. I've ruined some cookware... I've melted nylon forks in steaks and caught pots (yes plural) on fire. 

Third, its cheap.  You will spend one tenth on cast iron what you will spend for other quality non-stick cookware.  You will also typically replace every piece of non-stick cookware at least once in your life which doubles its cost.

Fourth, no 'chemicals' or should I say no 'weird' industrial chemicals you and medical science don't really know much about come near your food.  It's iron.... dug up from the ground and made from rocks... you understand rocks and iron... you probably don't know where the heck Polytetrafluoroethylene comes from or even what it is... but people cook on it.  With cast iron, you can also avoid silicon, nylon, and all kinds of other petroleum or polymer based utensils.  The only thing that will leach into your food is iron.

Most important of all... IT COOKS GREAT!!!! Last night as an experiment, I fried shredded cheddar cheese in it, and nothing stuck.  This morning, I cooked my breakfast in it, and was amazed... I've only recently been trying to make omelets 'the right way,' and had I known how to flip this baby this morning, it would have been restaurant quality.  The secret to an omelette  is 1) use butter.. and 2) to cook it slowly until it is thoroughly firm and able to fold.. I messed up the fold.. but otherwise it was fluffy and just right.

Supernatural Heat

Hello blog fans.  Well, I'm coming back.  Sorry for the time away... Life comes at you fast.

I'd like to introduce you guys to Ghost Chilies.  They were sent to me as a present for my birthday.  When my friend told me about them, I went looking all over town for them, and, though they have the Trader Joe's logo on them, I could not find them at Trader Joe's.  Indeed, I could not find them anywhere in Houston, so I'm very happy that my friend sent them to me.

Being a Texan, I'm rather familiar with a variety of chilies and enjoy a nice spicy dish whenever I can get one.  The only thing I don't really enjoy is how some peppers burn any living flesh they touch.  The fire should stay in my mouth, not singe lips and fingers.  that's one reason I shy away from the hottest of hot wings... I want an enjoyable eating experience, not to become the human torch.

Well, friends, that doesn't seem to happen with Ghost Peppers.  Don't get me wrong, these little babies stand up to their reputation.  They are HOT!  But its a heat that sort of sneaks up on you.  I've put these on pizza, hamburgers, beans and quesadillas so far, and the roasted pepper flavor transformed a rather ordinary meal into something extremely enjoyable.  Of course, after a minute or so of enjoying that full roasted pepper flavor, the heat hits you, and it hits mercilessly... filling your mouth with delicious flame.  I can't wait to try them in a pot of home made Texas chili.