Neurocooking, indeed!

From the New York Times article, To Become a Better Cook, Sharpen Your Senses

The most recent multisensory development is the connection between food and autonomous sensory meridian response, or A.S.M.R. A newly defined sensory state, A.S.M.R. is a kind of pleasurable shivering or tingling that spreads along the scalp, upper back and shoulders in response to soothing repetitive sounds. Originally, these included soft whispering, pages turning or having one’s hair brushed.

Now, A.S.M.R. devotees have discovered food. Video series like Silently Cooking and Peaceful Cuisine have no talking, no music, nothing to distract from the sounds of cooking: the rasp of a knife shaving chocolate, the rhythmic scrape of a whisk whipping egg whites, the glug-glug of olive oil pouring into a pan. Even eating sounds have A.S.M.R. devotees, especially if it involves chewing candy and whispering at the same time.

A pair of pairs.

We get most of our vegetables from the Lancaster Farm Fresh Cooperative.

(Photos: July 10th; click image for full-screen.)

A pair of pairs of pears.

(click image for full-screen)

Cooking with NeuroCooking 2!

Last year's Cooking with NeuroCooking was so popular that we are updating it with this season's best new dishes. And wishing you, dear readers, a new year filled with good fun, great food, and healthy brains and bodies!

Here are some of the tasty recipes we enjoyed this holiday:

Banana Rum Cream Pie
Basic Spaetzle
Cricket Ball
Dan Barber's Braised Short Ribs
Kale Salad with Kabocha Squash, Pomegranate Seeds & Toasted Hazelnuts
New York Sour
Pomegranate Roast Lamb
Porcini & Rosemary Crusted Beef Tenderloin with Port Wine Sauce
Va Va Rouge

Title of the Week!

The article "The dilemmas of the gourmet fly: the molecular and neuronal mechanisms of feeding and nutrient decision making in Drosophila" appears in the journal "Frontiers in Decision Neuroscience."

Compelling and Devastating.

"The Extraordinary Science of Addictive Junk Food" by Michael Moss will appear in this Sunday's New York Times Magazine.

Cooking with NeuroCooking!

Christmas - New Years' Edition

Here's a list and links to recipes that inspired this half of NeuroCooking throughout the recent holiday season:

Chocolate-Peanut-Butter-Banana Upside-Down Cake
Crimson Bulleit Punch
Dan Barber's Braised Short Ribs
Green Pea and Ham Soup
Heavenly Oatmeal-Molasses Rolls
Hogs in a Blanket
Holiday Ham
Lemony Brussels Sprout Slaw
Monte Cristo Strata
Orange Blossom Candied Cranberries
Orange Scented Olive Oil Sticky Buns
Pizzoccheri Gratin
Roasted Chicken Thighs with Clementines and Arak
Spaghetti Carbonara
Spinach-Shiitake Bread Puddings
Teddie's Apple Cake

Enjoy!

Correlation and um, y'know, the other thing...

"Chocolate Consumption, Cognitive Function, and Nobel Laureates" appears in the October 10th issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

Mid-September Garden-Grown Veggie-Blogging!

(click image for full-screen)

Late-August Garden-Grown Veggie-Blogging!

Eggplant. It's what's for dinner.

Q & A with a home-brewer!

Pitching liquid yeast into ale wort.

Q:  How can you tell if your yeast is lively?

A:  Throw it against some wort and see if it bounces.

She brews 'em, I shoot 'em.

Our first year of home-brewing (each bottle represents a batch of five gallons).

I shoot 'em, she stews 'em.

[Selections from this week's bounty from Sandy Spring CSA.]

"Luxury itself..."

"Though my debts are heavy
honey would pay them all.
Honey heals, honey mends.
A spoon takes more than it can hold
without reproach. A knife plunges deep,
but does no injury."

- from "Honey" by Connie Wanek in her book "On Speaking Terms" (2010) from Copper Canyon Press.

Fresh & stochastic.

Last night in the kitchen, after cooking & canning peach jam, the sounds of lids popping combined with the rumble of the dishwasher to form what John Cage would certainly have called music.

Home-brewing has changed my sense of time.

Last Saturday, we brewed a batch of stout, which should be ready for Xmas / New Year's.

[Photo: Stirring yeast into cool wort, Saturday afternoon.]

Beer warning.

Beer drinkers, be wary!

You might be offered something called "Old Dominion Oak Barrel Stout" without being properly warned that the stuff is dominantly flavored with vanilla, giving it a relationship to actual beer which is perhaps not entirely dissimilar to that enjoyed by root beer. Or cream soda.

Chicken, Cherry Tomato & Olive Bake

Basically, you throw everything into the pan and bake. Incredibly easy, pretty, and delicious results. The ingredient measurements below are guestimates; use more or less, and make additions, depending upon your preferences and what you have at hand. (I’ve seen a similar recipe using grapes instead of cherry tomatoes!)

Tom pointed out that this dish has red in it, so it is appropriate for Valentine's Night. My Valentine's gift to you, dear NeuroCooking readers!


Ingredients

* olive oil
* pint of cherry tomatoes
* lemon zest
* salt and pepper
* chopped parsley
* minced herbs, if you have them around, such as thyme
* smoked paprika, if you have it
* about 8 skinless chicken breast thighs, drumsticks too, if you want
* 1 jar green olives, stuffed with garlic or peppers or lemon
* garlic, if you want, or did not use garlic-stuffed olives


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees
2. Grease a shallow roasting pan with olive oil
3. Put chicken in pan, fully covering bottom, and salt and pepper chicken (sprinkle paprika, if using)
4. Whisk together olive oil, lemon zest, chopped parsley, and any other herbs. Chop garlic and add to mixture, or place garlic cloves around or under chicken pieces. Add enough oil so mixture can be thickly spooned onto chicken.
5. Sprinkle olives over herb-brushed chicken
6. Sprinkle cherry tomatoes over chicken (I like to salt the tomatoes)
7. Drizzle olive oil over olive- and tomato-covered chicken
8. Roast 40 to 45 minutes or until chicken is cooked through

Serve alone or over lightly buttered egg noodles with sauce from pan.

Sunday Noon list-blogging.

The steps in homebrewing:

• Brew
• Cool
• Pitch
• Ferment
• Rack
• Ferment
• Rack
• Prime
• Bottle
• Condition
• Age

[photo: one bottle of each our first four batches]

Correction of the day.

"A music review on Monday about the German band Rammstein, at Madison Square Garden, misstated the title of one of its songs and the English translation. The song is 'Wiener Blut' ('Viennese Blood'), not 'Weiner Blut' ('Blood Wine')."

– from The New York Times.