CK Food Links--Friday November 21, 2008

Here's yet another selection of particularly interesting food-related links from around the internet.
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The SATs of Cranberry Zinger Muffins at CheapHealthyGood
Every once in a while in the food blogosphere you find a post that literally makes you laugh out loud. Here, Kris writes up a (really good) muffin recipe in SAT test format, replete with confusing questions, a reading comprehension exercise and a math question incorporating both AIG and crystal meth. If in doubt, choose B.

Eight Ways to Save Time Doing the Dishes at Lifestyles of the Organized:
Oh the time I could have saved if I had read this twenty years ago! There is some surprisingly good advice here. In fact, long-time Casual Kitchen readers should recognize tip #1 as an example of doing tasks in parallel.

Roundup of Bread Recipes at Foodieview.com:
"It may be a cliché, but there really is nothing that compares to the smell of baking bread. I bake all year round, but there’s something about winter that truly feels like bread season." I've been looking for good roundup of bread recipes for a while now, and Susan Thomas (author of Farmgirl Fare) posts one of the best I've seen. If you're new to baking bread, start with her easy beer bread recipe. (A side note: look for a post here at CK on this very recipe in the next few weeks.)

Rice au Coca Cola at Accidental Hedonist:
Yep, you read that correctly. Rice cooked in Coca Cola. I don't know whether to laugh or hurl. But apparently this taste sensation--a combination of sweet and salty--really works. For some people.

Cream Scones, 1, 2, 3 at The Amateur Gourmet:
"The purpose of this experiment is to prove that a self-professed non-cook who loves scones can whip up a batch of cream scones so quickly, so easily, that they will: (1) no longer consider themselves a non-cook; and (2) eat scones to their heart's content."

How to Make Cottage Cheese at Savvy Housekeeping:
Amazingly simple and clearly written instructions on how to make your own cottage cheese at home. Thanks to CheapHealthyGood for finding this gem.

Squash Ravioli at Chefs Gone Wild:
Step by step instructions on how to make homemade ravioli, with everything explained, including the recipe for pasta dough, instructions on how to roll the pasta, even the type of pasta making machine he uses. Wow.

Quick Gazpacho at Cooking For Engineers:
This is the kind of recipe we love here at Casual Kitchen: easy, scalable and yet still ethnic and interesting.

Upside Down and Backwards at In Praise of Sardines:
Things are really coming to a climax as San Francisco-based chef Brett Edwards is getting very close to opening his restaurant. All of us dreaming of opening a restaurant someday should thank him for being so candid in this post about all of the construction and building problems he's facing right at the last minute. All worked out well, however, as the restaurant ultimately passed its final inspection, but it does make you wonder how anybody can survive the frustrations of starting a new business.

And if you are traveling to or have the good fortune to live in San Francisco, be sure to give this restaurant a try. Somehow I can just tell it's going to be amazing:

Contigo
1320 Castro Street (at 24th)
San Francisco, CA 94114
415/285-0250

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