Tuesday, November 29, 2011

SactoMofo Part 3: Revenge of the San Francisco trucks

I've been hearing quite a bit from friends, clients and pretty much everyone else that knows of my love of food: SactoMofo is returning.

This Saturday the 3rd, starting at 11:00 am, the trucks will be meeting in downtown/midtown Sacramento. And I am EXCITED!

However, I have a problem. Last time, I was able to meet up with several family members and friends, and we used an old trick: divide and conquer. Each of us went to a single truck, bought enough food for everyone, and met back up.

The problem? I don't have a group. YET.

That's where you come in, Sacto foodies! Would you like to join your resident insurance advisor and food truck junkie for food truck domination? Comment, E-Mail or Tweet at me, and we'll round up a posse. I guarantee you that this is infinitely better than trying to take on 4-5 lines in a day.

Saturday, November 26, 2011

Lemons

Thanksgiving is always a time for reflection, and though it can be a bit of a cornball activity, I did happen to think of some of the things I'm thankful for. It shouldn't surprise most folks that one of the things I'm thankful for happens to be a food item. What might surprise you is WHY I'm thankful for it.

I am thankful... for lemons.

Strange, right? Well, it is. And strange on several levels, in fact. Let me enlighten you a bit as to what I'm talking about.

Though I do enjoy the occasional lemon-flavored item, it's not just the food I'm speaking of. My family has a strange tradition that started roughly 5 years back. I'm really not sure how or why it began, but two of my younger cousins and I ended up up sitting around in the living room, tossing a lemon back and forth. Over time, it evolved into multiple lemons and more family members. There are only two rules: throw it softly, and if a lemon starts to become "juicy", it is retired. Bizarrely enough, many of my cousins look forward to this each year. If I'm being honest, I look forward to it, too.

Now, you might ask yourself, why would I look forward to this? It's strange, yes, but this activity is always accompanied with a rare form of belly-laughter. Maybe it's the absurdity to it that people enjoy. Perhaps we enjoy the occasional missed catch that leads to a lemon head-shot. In my case, I think it's the joy of seeing several of my teenage and relatively mopey cousins put down their phones and just spend time with family for a while. Whatever it is, everyone involved seems to have a great time.

Enjoy the rest of your Thanksgiving weekends! I hope you've managed to spend some time with family, lemons or not.

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Freaking Onions

I did a test run of my green bean casserole today, and for the life of me, I still cannot get the baked onions to come out right. They always burn. Curse you, Alton Brown!

Does anyone out there have a good method for doing a baked onion ring? I won't stoop to the canned french fried onions, nor do I want to do a deep-fried variety either. Are there any other options out there beyond baking? Or is baking a good method, and I'm just doing it wrong?

Thursday, November 17, 2011

Getting excited (and nervous!) about Thanksgiving

I'm not sure why, but I'm getting exceedingly excited about Thanksgiving this year. Not only the eating, but the cooking! I actually offered to take on the whole meal for my father's side of the family (which is quite a large group), but I ended up just taking on a few of the sides. It looks like I'll be making the potatoes and gravy and green bean casserole. All from scratch, of course!

In addition to being excited, I'm starting to get a little freaked out. I've only ever tackled a single project at a time for Thanksgiving. I'm pretty confident I can pull things off, but if things go awry, there goes a good chunk of Thanksgiving dinner.

Any recommendations? I don't want to stress out, get careless and slice my left hand again.

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

The "New Guy Ceremony"

Whenever we get a new person working here in the office, I always extend the offer to take them out to lunch as a "get to know you" type situation. I think it helps the newbies feel welcomed and hopefully works towards a friendlier environment as a whole.

This all sounds very nice, but I have to admit that a lot of it has to do with my undying love of food.

Am I being slightly self-serving? Perhaps. Everything I said earlier is true. It helps the new person feel included. I'm sure it helps! But basically, I'm just coming up with excuses to have an awesome lunch. Today's lunch will be a jaunt to one of my favorites: Cafe Rolle. I'll admit, I always get weird looks when I mention that it's French food, but most people are converts after they try it.

So, welcome to the insurance mines, new guy! I hope you don't mind that I'll be utterly silent when the food hits the table.

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Food Truck Q&A

Q: How do you know when you frequent food trucks too much?

A: When one of them Tweets at you and asks where you've been recently!

Hilariously, this just happened to me. Equally hilariously, it completely worked.  I wondered to myself, "Wow, when was the last time I managed to get some food from there?" and now I've been checking my schedule to see when I can hit them up next.

Oh you clever folks over at Wicked 'Wich. You'll get my money, I just need to find you!

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

More Charity Interactions!

Just when things wrap up for the Making Strides charity event for the American Cancer Society, it looks like I'm back on the charity front! No bake sales this time around, but I'll be helping to support the American Cancer Society yet again. This time it's for their Relay for Life event in Elk Grove California.

I'll be working with the Re/Max Gold Elk Grove branch this time around, and we'll be doing things a bit differently. This time, insurance is actually going to be involved! And you can be too, if you'd like.

Here's how it works: I'll be donating $5 to the American Cancer Society per quote for car or home insurance during the months of November and December. Just make sure to mention the Relay for Life in Elk Grove. I'll do my best to earn your business of course, but the quotes are no-obligation. If you don't like what we can do, the money is still donated regardless.

It's an awesome cause, so if you've been at all curious about working with me in the past, now would be a great time. Post a comment, Tweet at me @sactofoodandins or E-Mail me at Sactofoodandins@gmail.com, and we'll see what we can do.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Inconclusive Results

Battle Apple has come and gone. The results? Tough to say. First, let me introduce you to the competitors...


Both are made from scratch and were fresh from the oven just the other night. Very different preparations, though! One was a more traditional pie with a flaky crust, and the other was a skillet-pie with a biscuit crust. Between my fiancee and I, we couldn't decide upon a clear winner. So we decided to go the only fair route we could imagine: blind taste test.

Both options were brought into the insurance mines for a best-of-seven taste test. Sounds simple, right? Well, that's where things got complex. I asked folks in the office to taste the pies and I got many volunteers, but we went with the first seven available folks, and I got what I thought was a close (but conclusive) results. Four votes to three votes in favor of pie "A", the picture on the bottom. BUT, hours later, two of the folks I had asked to participate but were unable to at the time came back and voted for pie "B". So the best-of-seven quickly turned into a best-of-nine.

However, at that point, the taste test wasn't so blind! After the initial seven votes, people wanted to know who made what. So word got out! Either way you slice it, a tainted victory for either pie "A" or pie "B". Scandal!

So, what would you do in my shoes, not know which pie is mine? Declare pie "B" the winner, as defined by the original best-of-seven votes? Or throw in the two additional, possibly-not-so-blind votes and give the victory to pie "A"?

Tuesday, November 1, 2011

Battle Apple

Those that know me pretty well know that I'm quite competitive. Those that read this blog also know that I love food. Did you know that I also love food competition?

Not only am I a fan of shows like Iron Chef, Chopped and Sweet Genius, but I apparently like to imitate these shows during my free time. Example? This weekend, prior to a trip to Apple Hill, I proposed an idea to my fiancee: let's each plan to make an apple pie and see who makes the superior pastry. I even put the idea out there of doing a full Chopped-style deal of an appetizer, main course and dessert involving apples, but I was sadly shot down.

I'm already at a disadvantage in that my fiancee has recently turned out to be quite the baker, but I figure it should be fun regardless. I already struck first, albeit informally, with some baked apples, but it looks like my competitor will be making the first official pie tonight.

I think I already have my recipe ready to go (and a trick up my sleeve!), but if anyone has a secret weapon I should know about, please let me know. I'll take any advantage I can get. In the meantime, keep your fingers crossed both for the taste of my pie, and also for the health of my left hand. Knives and my hand don't always get along so well!