The Bitten Word

You Shared the Shame: Readers' Junk Drawers!

When we told you about our secret kitchen shame -- an overflowing junk drawer -- we invited readers to share images of their own kitchen clutter. And share you did! Dozens of your wrote in to empathize or to out certain family members as kitchen hoarders.

And plenty of you actually shared your junk drawer pics with us! 

So let's take a journey inside the junk drawers of some very brave Bitten Word souls.

 

From Kathleen: "At least you've cleaned yours out!"

Orange-Scented Olive-Oil Cake with Orange Compote and Ganache

Martha Stewart Living (February 2012)

Here's something we probably don't need to tell you: Martha Stewart Living has nice photography. Great photography, in fact. 

But there's a feature in the current February issue that has such stunning, jaw-droppingly gorgeous photos, we wanted to cook something from it just so we could talk about the pictures.

Could this Orange-Scented Olive-Oil Cake with Orange Compote and Ganache possibly live up to its photo?

Embarking on Year 5. Introduce Yourself!

Today marks the beginning of year five of The Bitten Word. Yes, friends, it's our blogiversary!

Four years ago today, we started writing this blog to help us stick to a new year's resolution to start cooking from our food magazine subscriptions. Today, more than 600 posts later, we're still at it. 

We've changed a bit over the course of the last four years. We're far more knowledgeable in the kitchen. Cooking with frequency and from a variety of sources has given us an education of sorts that we didn't expect when we started blogging. 

So why do we continue to write this blog?

Well, it's actually a lot of fun to do this together. We each have our own careers, and this has been a nice place to play and learn together, spending time in the kitchen, laughing and sharing food with friends. 

We continue to learn. There are still plenty of techniques we're eager to try and dishes we want to master. We love this aspect of cooking -- there's always a new recipe for roast chicken that we want to try. We love learning more about photography, and love seeing how much our photos have improved over the last four years. (Seriously, take a gander at the photos from our first month. WOOF.) 

And we still love food magazines. Each month we read at least 10 food magazines, and we still get excited when they show up in our mailbox. Even when we're critical of a recipe, we're still on the side of the magazines. And we want you to subscribe to food magazines. We're not writing this blog so that you will cancel your subscriptions. Rather, we're writing this blog as a fun companion to the magazines, and hopefully even expose you to some magazines you haven't sampled on your own. If you don't have one, get yourself a subscription. But take it from us, it's probably not a good idea to get 10 subscriptions. 

What we want out of Year 5 of The Bitten Word.

We're going to continue to try new dishes. Most of them will continue to be from food magazines. We'll also share a fare smattering of our own creations this year. At the same time, we're going to tell you about other food we're eating, books we're reading, share more videos and introduce you to people we love. 

What we want from you. 

Almost every time we've ever been interviewed about the blog, we've been asked some version of, "What's your favorite thing about writing The Bitten Word?"

We should probably give a better interview and mix up our answer from time to time, but we always say the same thing: hearing from our readers. It's true.

Your comments and emails, tweets and posts have been the absolute highlight of our experience as bloggers. You've shared your own hilarious stories, favorite recipes, heartbreaking news, restaurant tips, kitchen rants and from the looks of the comments, a lot of you are selling prescription medications at rock-bottom prices. (Just kidding -- we delete the spam comments.)

So if you have a moment, give us a blogiversary gift and introduce yourself. For those of you reading from feeds, you can do it here. It doesn't matter what you say. Tell us about where you live, or what you like to cook, or something you're hoping to learn this year. Tell us what you want to hear about from us this year, recommend a book, or share the best thing you ever eaten. Just introduce yourself. We can't wait to hear from you! 

Here's to an amazing fifth year. Let's do this thing.  

-- Clay & Zach

Poached Scrambled Eggs with Goat Cheese Sauce

Food & Wine (January 2012)

We like to think we're pretty good at scrambled eggs. We have a particular way of doing it that makes eggs just the way we like 'em: creamy and soft and delicious. Essentially, it involves cooking them over very low heat and stirring almost constantly. (Also, we picked up a tip a very long time ago from an otherwise ridiculously over-the-top omelet recipe: Stirring eggs with a chopstick or the thin end of a wooden spoon yields perfect fluffy eggs every time.)

We love the way we make scrambled eggs. The only problem is that it can take 15 or 20 minutes of near-constant stirring.

So we were more than a little intrigued by this recipe, which promises perfectly scrambled eggs in only 40 seconds. FORTY. SECONDS.

Quick New England Fish Chowder

Cook's Illustrated (January/February 2012)

New England fish chowder. Just the mention of it evokes blustery winter evenings, salty sea air, crackling fireplaces and nubby wool sweaters.

And while it's barely dipped below 45 degrees here all winter, we thought the idea of a big steaming bowl of fish chowder sounded extremely comforting and tasty for the beginning of February.

Cleaning Out Our Junk Drawer

 

One of our Culinary Resolutions for 2012 was to get organized in the kitchen. It's the one resolution we've tackled head-on over the last month, and we've already made some decent strides toward our goal.

We did a major streamlining of our pots and pans, paring down to the essentials we really use and donating the rest. (Goodbye, first set of Target cookware! We applaud your decade of service!) 

We took what was left and organized it in a way that makes sense. It's amazing how easily we're able to find things now, and how much less painful it is to go hunting for a lid in the depths of our cabinets. It makes us wonder why we hadn't gotten serious about getting organized before now. Lesson learned. For now. 

And while our food cupboards are still pretty full (look for us on an upcoming season of Hoarders: Someone Please Eat This!), we've been making a concerted effort to eat down what's been piling up in there. (Spoiler alert: We've been eating a lot of lentils. And you'll likely be hearing about it very soon.)

But our junk drawer remained a stubborn spot of chaos. Crammed with everything you can imagine (and some things you couldn't imagine), it was a disorganized, useless mess. We have literally spent hours of our lives searching for things in this jumble of kitchen gear and random items that don't belong elsewhere. 

This weekend, we called time on the junk drawer and decided to do something about it. In fact, we made a little video about it. 

 

Doctor-Your-Own Potato Chips + Other Menu Ideas for the Super Bowl

Adapted from Martha Stewart Living (September 2011)

 

Our interest in sports can be summed up in this small snippet of recent conversation: 

Zach: "I don't even know who's playing in the Super Bowl."

Clay: "Uh, duh? Madonna."

So yes, it's Super Bowl Week, when America's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of snacks.

And whether you're a fan of the Giants or the Patriots -- or just Madonna or the commercials -- we've got the perfect snack for the big game: heated and spiced potato chips.

Yup, you heard us.

1 Video and 10 Photos to Wrap Up Our Trip to China

This photo? This is what we would call a chopstick fail.

We were having lunch in Beijing, at a place we had randomly picked while walking down the street, and we were in the midst of a massive dumpling craving. So we went in and ordered several kinds of dumplings, plus these beef noodles. As you can see, our attempt to split it between bowls didn't go so well. The staff of this restaurant thought it was hilarious and not so discreetly kept coming by the table so they could see (and laugh). 

At this point, our trip to China at Thanksgiving seems a lifetime away. But as we think more about the trip and look at our photos, we just can't help ourselves! Here's one last post about our trip. 

We told you about our favorite dishes, the wacky food, and gave a tour of a Chinese market. This last set of photos features things we thought were fun, or that you might be interested in seeing.

Let's start with a video. 

Swordfish Puttanesca

Saveur (January 2012)

One of the best things about cooking our way through magazines is that we're always learning something new. Whether it's an ingredient, a preparation or an actual dish, we're constantly finding out about new techniques or being confronted with dishes that we have long heard about but never tried.

Puttanesca is a perfect example. We've always heard about it, but if we'd been pressed to define it, the best we would have come up with is, "It's like an Italian...sauce...right?"

Well, puttanesca, we're sorry it's taken us so long to get to know you. Where have you been all our lives?

Warm Coconut Rice Pudding

Cooking Light (January/February 2012)

Rice pudding is easy to forget about. It's sort of a sleeper dessert. If it were an Oscar contender, it'd be The Artist. If it were a character on Downton Abbey, it'd be Edith, the middle daughter. (Yes, we're watching. And we're obsessed.) If it were a Beatle, it'd be George. (Obviously, if Ringo were a dessert he'd be something more like this.)

Rice pudding is Jan Brady.

Which, of course, isn't fair. Rice pudding is warm and comforting, and it's easy to make. Scented with cinnamon and other spices, it's the perfect treat on a chilly winter night.

And this recipe from Cooking Light has us sitting up and taking notice. More than two years ago, we asked ourselves why we weren't eating more rice pudding. But, well, we keep forgetting about it. Not any more. This rice pudding may just be our new favorite winter dessert.