Do Superstitions Sometimes Work?

I guess that most people have superstitions that involve doing a special dance for the snow to come in full force, wearing a lucky hat to take a test, keeping a special penny in their wallets, etc. I make food.

The Ohio State versus Michigan game was a week and a half ago. Of course I dawned my lucky red and wore my lucky buckeye necklace...but special games goo very well along with special food. I think that these buckeye pretzels may be a new staple for Buckeye game days. I got a bunch of pretzels from work that needed to be used and had to find something to do with them. I just melted some peanut butter in one pot and melted some semisweet chocolate chips in another. Then I dipped the pretzels in the peanut butter and then in the chocolate and then let them cool on a wax paper lined cookie sheet. So simple, but very delicious. I put varying amounts of the peanut butter and chocolate on according to different tastes, but I think the ones with a lot of both were the winners. No matter what, the right team won the game and so I guess they all worked. GO BUCKS!

Also, there is a new tradition to put a Tennessee jersey on our kitten, Stella Artois. Stella has a perfect record with this jersey and quite an imperfect record without it. Seriously.. So the Stella Artois bottle wore the UT cozy courtesy of Ashley for the Tennessee versus Kentucky game. Another success! I think I might have found a way to win them all. :-)

Top Chefs of Knoxville

Tonight I went to a competition between the top chefs of Knoxville. Chef Antun, the head of the culinary program, gave us free tickets to the event. A chef from 12 of the better known restaurants in Knoxville came and supplied the crowd with an appetizer and (with the exception of 2 restaurants) a dessert. We went around and tasted one of everything and gave each a score from 1 to 5. It was so fun getting to meet all of these chefs whose names adorn all of the famous restaurants in Knoxville and especially having them trying to impress us for our vote.

There was a wide range in the foods and my impressions thereof. Two things I didn't like: filet mignon tartar and a Guiness chocolate cake. There were at tons of dishes that were absolutely fantastic, though....I think I might be stopping by those restaurants for similar dishes. Among my favorites: Beef Willington wrapped in puff pastry with basil mashed potatoes, seared tuna sushi with a mango cole slaw, a quid salad, salmon salad profiteroles, a meyer lemon cheesecake with pomegranate reduction, white chocolate banana bread pudding, and baklava. I'm so full!!

The results from our voting are going to be published in December's issue of City View Magazine (a Knoxville magazine). Chef Antun will also be included in the magazine talking about himself and the school. So fun!

I love being in the food world:-)

whoaaaah

look at this bread


*edit* So, I made this bread and I think that it lives up to the hype. MMMMM

not my food , but you've gotta love it

So, I have also decide that I need to talk about a couple of food-related sources that I have found to be quite interesting. The first is this book: Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel. In order to compile this book, the author went around to a bunch of different countries and asked a family from each to take a picture with all of the food that they would normally eat. There are also essays about the political and cultural climates of the countries while at the same time tying them into food. This is certainly right up my alley. The same author has another book called A Material World. I have bought several copies of this book to give as gifts and own one myself. It uses the same concept, but instead of with food the families stand outside of their houses with all of their material possessions. Both books give a very insiteful and unique view of the world and I highly recommend checking them out if you ever wind up bored in a bookstore.

The second thing is a website called Taste Spotting. They update the page at least a few times a day with links to different blogs about food that people have submitted. There are very often extremely creative and interesting ideas and foods that show up. I look at this website more than any other and am always so excited to see what is going to be on there next. Jenn introduced it to me and we are always talking about things that we have seen on there. You can click on the link up there to access the page if you would like to check it out. It is well worth it in my opinion!

In other happenings, a guy from my culinary class gave me a huge bag of collard greens yesterday. He was harvesting them and asked me if I wanted them last week and I said sure, not really thinking that he was serious. Sure enough he showed up with a huge bag of them. So I get to have my first experience with cooking them tomorrow. I better watch out- if I'm not careful I am on my way to becoming southern. :-)