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Cooking
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The other night Wolf and I were watching House of Cards and talking about Kevin Spacey. We’re doling out the episodes, one per evening rather than gorging on the whole season. When was it that Kevin Spacey broke out? We reckoned it was the trifecta of The Ref, Usual Suspects and Swimming with Sharks that really put him on the map. Two years later, in 1997, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil came out. Now I admit, I haven’t seen this film in years, and really all I could remember about it was that it was set in New Orleans. So I looked it up on IMDB and I haven’t stopped laughing since. Look at that ‘stache!
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You don't have to buy canned cream of chicken soup. I'm embarrassed to say this notion only just occurred to me. Instead, I've generally avoided any and all casseroles that call for either cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup. Chalk it up to the childhood trauma that is tuna casserole (and the extreme amounts of sodium). Continuing that lightning bolt, you can make what is basically cream of chicken soup – a béchamel with part chicken broth, part milk. That’s exactly what went down with this King Ranch Casserole.
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There’s a critical step that often gets missed in this whole reading food blogs thing.
Observe:
Step 1: Ooh, I really want to make something with potatoes.
Step 2: Google potato recipes
Step 3: Scroll past the text and ogle hasselbeck potatoes, stuffed potato skins, potato salad, tater tots, hash browns, etc.
Step 4: Read recipes
Step 5: Possibly comment “Ooh, looks yummy.” Alternatively, pin recipes to your “Yummy Potatoes” Pinterest board.
Step 6: The End.
What’s missing here?
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It's the day after Thanksgiving. You just had a turkey sandwich with a few slices of apple and a schmear of cranberry, but there's still a lot left. Why is it that of all the Thanksgiving side dishes, it's the cranberry that hangs around for days? Whether it's brandied cranberries, a basic homemade cranberry sauce or the one from a can, it's always the last to go. This year, I've got an idea for you. Cranberry Black Pepper Sweet Rolls.18
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Growing up not far from Little Saigon, pho shops all had numbers -- Pho 79, Pho 84, but somewhere along the line pho went mainstream and so did the names of the shops. So let's get the jokes and gimmicky names out of the way upfront.
"What the Pho?" -- Kids in my class were using this one as far back as junior high -- in the late '80s. Now, it's a noodle shop in Bellevue, WA.
"9-0-2-1-Pho" -- This is real. And yes, it's in Beverly Hills.
"Jenny Pho" -- Also real. In Issaquah, WA.
And of course, the king of all Pho shops...well, there's an, um, king and he don't serve burgers.
Creating a good pho broth takes hours, but there's no reason you can't do it. Put aside your worries about leaving a pot simmering on the stove unattended overnight, because you can make a good traditional pho broth in the slow cooker. I never would have thought of it, and then a lightbulb flicked on over my head when I saw the recipe on Serious Eats.13