Foodborne Chillness

  I've always loved corned beef ever since I was a kid, and I've tried a few different ways to make it before finally settling on the method I'm going to describe here. It gives perfectly tender meat with a crispy, slightly sweet crust on top that nicely compliments the salty corned beef.  First though, let's take a minute to explore why corned beef isn't really an "authentic" Irish dish, although it's so closely associated with that country. The story begins during the industrial revolution in Britain... Just kidding! If I ever make you scroll through five paragraphs of filler before I get to the recipe, call the authorities because someone is holding me against my will and I am trying to send a duress signal. Let's just jump to the important parts: Get your Instant Pot out (or whatever off brand automatic pressure cooker you have) and set it to 70 minutes on high, and turn off the 'keep warm' if yours is like mine and defaults to that. Ri...

Chicken Long Rice Soup (ProTip: there's no rice in it - the name comes from the 'cellophane' noodles) is a Hawaiian favorite, or so I am told. It seemed like the perfect cold weather treat, but after getting all my ingredients together, I discovered that the recipe I found was, frankly, a disaster, with scattershot directions and some pretty inefficient methods. I decided it was worth fixing, though, so my pain is your gain. Ingredients: 2.5 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs OR about 3 pounds chicken leg quarters 3, 32 ounce cartons of chicken broth 1 half-inch piece of fresh ginger root 1 large sweet Maui onion 1 package of bean thread noodles (typically 6-8 ounces, also sold as cellophane or glass noodles) 1 bunch of green onions 1 small head of bok choy Hawaiian sea salt and cracked pepper to taste Directions: In a large pot, put your chicken in with the broth. For convenience, it's hard to beat frozen boneless, skinless thighs, but if yo...

This is NOT a good thing... So, my local Facebook "community talk" groups have been clogged the last few days with one post after another asking the same question: "When is the new Cheescake Factory going to open?" People are treating this event with the same crazed enthusiasm that went along with our bucolic little valley getting its first Golden Corral buffet restaurant (and the same total lack of the ability to search to see if the question has already been asked and answered dozens of times.) For a chain restaurant to inspire this kind of foaming expectation, they must be doing something right. Viewed objectively, it's a little hard to pinpoint what makes them successful. First of all, the Factory takes pride in their enormous, encyclopedic menu that encompasses more than 250 items at any given time. They make a big deal about the fact that their dishes are cooked (mostly) from scratch, but let's face it - it's impossible to have Thai lettuce...