The Gospel According to the Wannabe Foodie

This week’s topic include an uncharacteristic introspective by the Wannabe Foodie, camping is not synonymous with bad food, I make comfort food, the gospel according to the Wannabe Foodie, and a random travel note for your enjoyment. 

The WF’s recent hiatus.  I recognize that the last couple of posts haven’t followed the normal once per week schedule.  I simply haven’t felt very ‘bloggy’.  Frankly, I haven’t been cooking much, which partially explains the lack of ‘blogginess’.

This lack of cooking also likely explains my generally cantankerous nature lately.  Everyone’s got something(s) they enjoy doing and which relaxes them.  For me, that’s cooking, whether it’s just for the family or for 30 people, and writing about it.  Lately, I haven't been doing enough of either. 

Tonight I’m cooking (see WF comfort food below) and writing about it and all’s well in the world.

Enough with the uncharacteristic introspective and on with the blog. 

Camping food doesn’t have to suck.  Another hobby of the Wannabe Foodie is camping, whether it be in a tent or in our old camper trailer.  The peace and quiet, the abundance of stars, and cocktails around a massive campfire… What’s not to like?!

However, when camping, I do not subscribe to the notion that you have to eat crappy food.

A group of friends and I recently did our annual Dads’ camping trip.  It’s just the Dads and the kids.  Oddly enough, the wives seem to enjoy the weekend with an empty house more than the actual participants.  Funny how that works.

We always eat well.  Check out these dinners….  Thursday night – bacon-wrapped venison tenderloins and sirloins, salad, baked beans, and the WF’s homemade rosemary garlic bread.  Friday night (the WF’s night to cook) – seared silver and king salmon fillets, lime-butter corn (fresh lime zest is the bomb on corn on the cob), salad, and bread.  Friday night – marinated tri-tips, misc. sides, and lots of red wine.

Who says camping sucks?!

Comfort food for the WF.  As some of you know, I spent my early childhood in the South.  As a result, there are some dishes which are pure comfort food to me.  One of those dishes is chicken and dumplings.  It’s like chicken pot pie and chicken soup, all in one dish.  I’m sure there are some godless heathens out there who have never had this dish.  Shame on you and your food snobbiness.

As a child, I wasn’t smart enough to pay attention to how my aunt and grandma made this dish, so I’ve resorted to attempting to recreate it.  I’ve tried a few recipes and I think I’ve finally found one that I think is absolutely awesome.  It’s Tyler Florence’s recipe and it includes buttermilk dumplings.  Chicken and Dumplings Recipe.  The Things and I love this dish.  I’m pretty sure the Red just loves Tyler Florence.

Whenever possible, I use my own smoked chickens and homemade stock made from the carcasses.  If I don't have my own smoked chicken meat for the dish, I'll substitute a rotisserie chicken from Costco.

Here’s the final dish.  

The review?  Pretty darn good and quintessential comfort food.  Seriously, no matter how bad your day was, if someone puts a bowl of this in front of you, you will smile.  I promise.  The fragrances of the buttermilk dumplings, the sweet pearl onions, the earthy garlic, the floral bay leaves…  It’s enough to make a grown man cry. 

One criticism of my own dish – it needed a bit more salt.  That’s the upside and downside to using your own stock.  It has absolutely no salt in it, so you have to add salt to whatever dish you’re using the stock in.  I struggle a bit with bringing enough salt to the dish without adding too much.  It’s a delicate balance and I’m working on it.

The Gospel according to the Wannabe Foodie.  I believe that there are certain truisms and rules by which you should live your life.  Some of these are:  a) don’t piss into the wind; b) if you piss off Mom, inevitably Dad will get pissed off as well (it takes you well into adulthood to understand why that occurs); c) karma is a bitch; d) as a man, you always need to keep more money in the proverbial marital bank than you think you need because inevitably you’ll do something stupid and force a withdrawal; and e) One of the Red’s truisms – when it comes to romance and dating, the woman always knows what’s going on.  The guy is often clueless.

Go ahead and try to argue that last truism.  I dare you.

I suggest that there is another truism in life that some of you may not be aware of.  If you’re at a restaurant and macaroni and cheese is listed as an entrée (not on the kids’ menu) or highlighted among the sides, order it.  Somebody in the kitchen thinks their mac ‘n cheese is so good that it deserves to be on the menu.  They learned it from their grandma or mom, or that classically trained chef in the back just can’t resist the urge to revisit a childhood favorite.

90% of time or more, the mac ‘n cheese will rock.  Trust me on this.

Here’s an example – the lobster mac ‘n cheese at the Corner Office in downtown Denver.  More on that in a future blog, but it is one of my absolute favorite meals anywhere.

Random Travel Note.  So recently I found myself in the security line at an airport.  As I’m approaching the ID checkpoint, I engage one of the TSA officers in conversation.  This officer was literally doing nothing other than leaning against a pole and not-so-intently watching the crowd.  Great use of tax dollars.

As we’re chatting, I almost respond to a question with “Yes, sir,” but I stop myself.  This is clearly a middle age man.  Short hair, masculine facial features, pot belly, pants worn low due to pot belly, etc.  And then I pay attention to the voice.  Nope.  That’s a woman.

Glad I didn’t call her sir.  That would be like asking a robust woman when she’s due only to find out that she’s not pregnant.  I’m pretty sure I would have been in for one hell of a cavity search if I called her sir.   

It’s Pat!

Happy Cooking.

WF