Marilyn Haggerty's amazing Olive Garden review and the subsequent viral shitstorm

the pesto is fine, ppl are mostly on a "zomg I made this" kick in the US atm

there's a bit of this over here, i tend to roll my eyes at it

I know where surm is coming from on the "fluffy" descriptor -- I like to make it with a little less oil than recipes generally call for*, and when it's straight out of the food processor, fluffy is pretty accurate.

*because I'll be adding a layer of oil to the part I don't freeze, to keep it from oxidizing; by the time I've used it all up, it's fairly wet

xpost--
T/S: learned helplessness vs. feigned helplessness

I am going to grow a basil plant in our garden just for lex. He'll come out here for some interview, I'll demonstrate how this can be made into pesto, wisdom will then be achieved. Then as per amateurist's post my apartment will explode.

that goes for all dried vs. fresh herbs. they have totally different uses.

xp

Pesto is the best. Fresh basil is one of my favorite things in the whole world. Nicole otm about fresh from the garden basil. I used to bring big bags of it home with me from my parents' where my dad had a huge plant. SO SO GOOD.

My main objection to most pre-packaged ready-to-eat stuff (including pesto in jars) is all of the chemicals and preservatives in it. Sky-high sodium, for instance.

it's nice to have a basil plant near an open window because when you get a breeze it spreads basily goodness through the kitchen.

mmmmmmmm basil.

I am fine with a lot of dried herbs but basil is just something that is nowhere near as good dried. MMMMM basil, I love you.

lol x-post

I love fresh basil too but ime it has to be used, like, RIGHT AWAY cuz really there's no way to keep it fresh for more than a day or so before it turns black and slimy

xp

Oh I don't care about sodium. I have low blood pressure. Bring on the jars of pesto. I'll eat am all.

I make basil ice cubes if I have a lot leftover.

you guys need to get a room with your basil.

re. basil: yeah and around here you can only fresh basil at the grocers in huge, expensive quantities of which you inevitably use only a fraction.

i find basil plants are fragile, though. hard to keep one going for months unless you have some luck.

Re basil ice cubes - it's very convenient way of storing nice fresh basil for later use where it won't be good as the freshest kind but still better than dried.

xpost -- Hell, we have the opposite problem; our basil just won't stop. Not that we mind.

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3630/3683067722_cc76d3c585.jpg

http://toprecipes.blurtit.com/q703204.html

pancake tossing is a whole new world to me

I guess I lucked out with some hardy basil. I started it 2 or 3 years ago, let it bloom and go to seed every fall, and it comes back in the same planter every spring. I don't even bother harvesting the seed. xp Ned got the same stuff!

I think my dad did too. He never knew what to do with all of his which is why I'd end up with so much of it.

DJP: go nuts:

http://www.recordholders.org/en/records/pancake.html

The record is for the number of times a pancake (the same on each time) can be tossed in two minutes. It should be made with 170 g (6 oz) of batter, in a pan with a base measurement of 15.2 cm (6 in). The ingredients used should be edible and comprise flour, eggs and milk.
The frying pan should weight at least 340 g (12 oz) and have a base measurement of at least 21.5 cm (8 1/2 in.)
The number of tosses should be counted and recorded in a satisfactory manner, and this figure confirmed in the signed statements.

"And our latest competitor, lex pretend."

*10 seconds later*

"Oh the humanity."

oh like I hadn't already found that page

Very good, sir.

Also: lex, if THIS guy can do it:

http://www.9news.com/images/640/360/2/assetpool/photogallery/252423/51541336_10.jpg

http://www.9news.com/images/640/360/2/assetpool/photogallery/252423/83825922_10.jpg

romney looking good there

i want to own one of those last ones to cook for me

what is that two-spatulas bullshit

I guess I lucked out with some hardy basil. I started it 2 or 3 years ago, let it bloom and go to seed every fall, and it comes back in the same planter every spring. I don't even bother harvesting the seed.

If you try to keep just ONE PLANT alive for a long time you will be unhappy because I think the flavor goes off as the plant ages, plus it will just keep trying to bloom until it's exhausted. Maybe that's what people are saying? One plant in a pot indoors will eventually stop producing well. You have to let it die and re-seed for the best result.

Thai basil kicks regular basil's ass

why the hell did this thread blow up?

fuckin' bush. forgot all about that demented idiot.

If you try to keep just ONE PLANT alive for a long time you will be unhappy because I think the flavor goes off as the plant ages, plus it will just keep trying to bloom until it's exhausted. Maybe that's what people are saying?

Yes, they don't age very well. The flavor seems to fade out.

Is it part of the game to pretend that Lex isn't hamming it up beyond all fucking reason with the ignorance schtick? "put it in the microwave?" give it a rest. Yes put it in the fucking microwave, and leave it there forever.

he just rolled his eyes at your post. twice.

I believe that Lex can't cook and has no desire to learn and is a total klutz to the point of looking like he has Parkinson's, but the flaunting and basking in the attention is just pathetic.

he just did a triple eyeroll and then he clicked his teeth or smacked them or whatever the hell that thing is he does with his teeth that i read on some thread once.

i REALLY didn't want to work today apparently.

everyone deserves a day off. while at work.

for lex: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wusGIl3v044

There was a thread on I Love Cooking that I can't find anymore. I think it was called "What is technically wrong with this" and it started with a pic of a plastic colander on top of a bowl. The OP kept insisting they wanted to learn to cook but then when people suggested super simple shit like microwaving basil, they countered with "but how would *I* know how to microwave basil????" and I wonder if it was Lex who started that thread.

This thread is making me crave my mom's microwaved basil.

just noticed something else weird about that video (aside from, you know, everything else):

"add some tacos -- olé!"

tacos are not spanish.

I believe that Lex can't cook and has no desire to learn and is a total klutz to the point of looking like he has Parkinson's, but the flaunting and basking in the attention is just pathetic.

― free societies must let drunken gay Texans have sex (Je55e), Wednesday, March 14, 2012 5:18 PM (58 minutes ago) Bookmark

yeah, it's a self-defeating attitude, it's also p ironic because lex is always on people for listening to 'sad' music

pesto absent garlic is sad

yeah, it's a self-defeating attitude, it's also p ironic because lex is always on people for listening to 'sad' music

it's not a self-defeating attitude. it's a point of perverse pride, defining the self in terms of what one isn't. like not driving, not owning a television or hating comedy (or indie rock or whatever). nothing wrong with taking pride such things, and not everybody has to be interested in cookery.

I have thing about self-sufficiency and disliking willful ignorance, but really it's FINE if he lacks the ability to cook and has no interest in cooking, but it's irksome that at the mention of cooking, there he is with his almost boastful declarations of culinary incompetence and contempt for the kitchen.

I used to be that way about Madonna (and I still am tempted to be that way) which I actually realized as a side effect of therapy. Any time I was around gay guys and someone mentioned Madonna, I would start my litany against her (also, Mariah Carey, disco, and all dance, and dancing itself). I would put my ignorance and contempt in display as a defense against having to engage with others. I've slipped done it in the gay thread recently, but it's annoying and self-defeating.

I Veered off topic. Oops.

Anyway Lex, go see a shrink and boil yourself some peanuts for dinner.

other things in which city-dwellers often take a similarly perverse pride: never leaving the city and thus being ignorant about even nearby towns, loathing nature (hikes, camping, etc).

pesto comes out of JARS.

This disconnect is part of the issue Scott raises. Sure I'm a foodie snob though I probably cook (or prepare) well over 60% of what I eat but even if you're indifferent to food, knowing where it actually comes from, how it's grown, how it's marketed and sold, how to prepare it is part of being aware of your surroundings, it's like knowing that ads tend to exagerate and movie love stories aren't always the best templates for real-life romance. As Ned pointed out, pesto is pretty easy to make, and if it comes out of jars it has stuff in it which you might want to know about even if you go ahead and decide to eat it.

Once upon a time much of this processed food (bacon, canned tomatoes and fruit, beer, wine, dried, salted or confit meats or fish was simply a way you could make it through the winter before freezers and greenhouses and refrigerated trucks and genetically modified plants that can still be store-friendly a week or two after they've been trucked cross-continent. Now we can freeze things and refigerate them but we aren't growing our own food nor are we right near the places that do and food is something that comes out of jars rather than part of our ecosphere and our relationship to it one of alienation. I find that both troublesome (we fat!) and sad, since I like feeling connected to a place. and its would-be Lares.

it's not a self-defeating attitude. it's a point of perverse pride, defining the self in terms of what one isn't. like not driving, not owning a television or hating comedy (or indie rock or whatever). nothing wrong with taking pride such things, and not everybody has to be interested in cookery.

― Fozzy Osbourne (contenderizer), Wednesday, March 14, 2012 5:52 PM (5 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

but if *you* weren't interested in cookery would you just think "not interested" and move on, or tell everyone over and over and over why you're not interested?