Just bullshitting. Here's some Bob's Burgers stuff.

So, I lapsed. Here's the last four weeks Bob's Burgers specials.
Episode 6: Dr. Yap
Burger 1: "It's fun to eat at the rYeMCA Burger (Comes on Rye w/Mustad, Cheese and Avocado)" It seems like an odd mix, heavy rye bread mated to Avo, which has a bright flavor, but a heavy feel. Odd.
Just one, that episode. Although: Moana-tonin was pretty awesome.

Episode 7: Moody Foodies
Burger 1: "If Looks Could Kale" Bob's made a burger with kale before. It's a running joke of him to use "fancy ingredients, like Kale" according to Jimmy Pesto (a rival cook). I'd imagine it's a burger topped with Kale.
Burger 2: "Little Swiss Bunshine Burger (comes on a buttered bun)" I assume it's with swiss.
Burger 3: "Girls just Wanna have Fennel" Sounds like a burger topped with fennel. The burger looks like the fennel is accompanied with cheese and tomatoes on screen.
Burger 4: "The Final Kraut Down Burger" seems like it'd be a simply burger topped with Sauerkraut. Simple enough...

Episode 8: Bad Tina
Burger 1: "Sit and Spinach Burger" Probably a normal burger of his topped with spinach in place of lettuce, or even on top of it. It's actually a pretty good topping for burgers, I've made it before, it works well.
Burger 2: "Sweaty Palms Burger (Comes with hearts of palm)" I know the reference is to Bob having just seen a stomp parody called "Cake" about patty-cake, culinarily (is that a word?), it would be the flesh of a young palm tree, I believe. Not something I'm too interested in eating, and something I doubt Bob Belcher could get his hands on at such short notice.

Episode 9: Beefsquatch
This one is awesome for some cool burger ideas. I'll probably borrow from this to make some great burgers. He goes into detail about his recipes, for the first time, in this episode. I hate talking about a Loren Bouchard cartoon in this kind of detail, but the man knows what he's doing. Plus, John Lennon was absolutely hilarious in the episode!
Burger 1: "Poutine on the Ritz (comes with poutine fries)" which would be a standard burger served with a side of fries and cheese curds served in brown gravy. Seems a little heavy and ethnocentric for a burger joint on the east coast.
Burger 2: "Onion-tended Consequences Burger" Bob cooks this while the Poutine burger is on the board, so, I don't know what this actually is. It's a burger with caramelized onions, fresh time and goat cheese. It's gotta be hella delicious, though.
Burger 3: "Bruscheta-bout'it Burger" Fresh mozz, basil, oil, vinegar. We can assume that before Gene ruined the segment that it would be a traditional Bruschetta on top of a beef patty, which I can see being very awesome. I definitely have to try that, sometime.
Burger 4: On the board in act 2 it says "Mesclun Around Burger" It, honestly, took me a short google search to find out it wasn't Mescaline. It's a french salad mix of Arugula, Spinach and Lettuce. Not too impressive, in my opinion, since it plays into his pattern. At the same time, I'm critiquing a cartoon burger cook.
Burger 5: "Mediterr-Ain't-Misbehavin' Burger" is made on the show, it's topped with feta and eggplant. It looks like the bun has a purple colored dressing and there's also a green on top of the patty. I can't tell you what's on it beyond what he described, or even how to top one, but, it shouldn't be hard to put something together.
Burger 6: "I'm Gonna Get You Succotash Burger" which is, as far as I can tell, a standard burger joint burger topped with succotash, which sounds great. In the show, it's sabotaged with habanero peppers to trick Gene. At the same time, I'd love to top a burger with succotash, a mix of corn and beans with maybe peppers and onions. Game on German heritage.
Burger 7: "Every Breath you Tikka Masala Burger" which seems to be a burger topped with curry paste and coconut milk. It, actually sounds awesome. It's a shame the show didn't allow this burger to be completed on screen. I'd love to put that together with a lamb patty, to be honest. Curry paste, coconut milk, green onions, goat cheese and lamb patties serves on flat bread would be an amazing burger.
Burger 8: "The Don't Get Creme Fraiche With Me Burger" assumed to be the standard diner burger topped with Creme Fraiche, rather than Mayo or Sour Creme. A sudden throw back to South Park is in my mind... oh... Bob.

That makes up the last bit of Season 2 of Bob's Burgers. I'd love to make all of his burgers, this season. Hopefully, I'll get back to the Cheese & Burger Society burgers soon, too. Man... I am both a bitch to adult cartoons and burgers. We'll see what happens.

More Bob's Burgers!

Well, I haven't been cooking a whole ton, recently. I've found myself attempting to woo girls in vain, enjoying some Scotch and Sodas and finding myself consuming enormous amounts of sandwich shop sandwiches. A little disappointing, all in all, but I'm enjoying the life I'm leading, at the loss of cooking ridiculously elaborate haute cuisine... or, rather, super downhome southern style food, chinese food and fantastic Mexican, considering I'd touched Haute about once in my journeys.

I'm currently letting the Pork Tacos from El Burrito Mexicano settle and watching some fun family guy. Hopefully, soon, I'll be cooking again. This is going to be a live post, I guess, cause I'm planning on posting up last week's Bob's Bourgers specials.

Mexican Every Day

Yeah, it's a cookbook, a great one, but it's also my life, apparently. In the last 7 days, I've had Mexican 5 times... wait... no, six. Wowazowy!
Taco Bell twice, Taco Diner twice, homemade once and El Burrito Mexicano once...
so... much... mexican... yummy!

April 27th, 2012: Tamales

Well, I skipped last weeks post about the Big Ben. Sorry about that. I only had cell phone pics and felt that a post about another Cheese and Burger Society burger would be a bit... droll, considering that I've been doing nothing but posting about burgers, as of late.

So, here we are... Friday night. Fridays are what day? Burger day! Not tonight, it's Mexican Wednesday on a Friday!

Bob's Burgers Season 2 specials

Since, I can't seem to find a proper list of the Season 2 specials, I will proceed to watch the entirity of Season 2 so far while drinking Old Style and compiling this list.

Party on, garth.

Episode 1: The Belchies
"I am Mad About Saffron"
I assume it's made with saffron in it, which I can honestly say, would be one of the more expensive burgers I'll make.

Episode 2: Bob Day Afternoon
"Chard to a crisp"
Bob describes this burger as "served with Swiss Chard," I'm assuming that it's sauteed chard, to counteract the bitterness. It sounds very similar to the Kale burger from the first season.

Episode 3: Synchronized Swimming
A bit of a continuity error on this one. In the first 5 minutes of the episode, the board reads "Burger Ala Mode - Comes with ice cream (not on tap)" but changes to "Shake your honeymaker burger (comes with honey mustard) on the next shot.
The first one is because Bob had just installed a soft serve icecream machine in the shop. The second one is easily do-able. A burger with honey-mustard. I'll just have to try and match it up to a Cheese and Burger Society burger.

The first episode of the Season to span more than one day, this makes it, also, the first episode to feature multiple "Burgers of the Day," The second one being "The one yam band burger (comes with yams)."
I don't know if that's a burger with yams on it or as a side. Maybe some sweet potato fries? If, in fact, the yams are on the burger itself, that is a hard flavor to juggle on a beef patty.

The third is the "Do Brussel (sic) Burger (comes with Brussel (sic) Sprouts)" which I assume that the sprouts are served as a side with them, as placing them on the burger itself would be rather challenging.

Episode 4: Burgerboss
"Goodnight and good leek burger"
I'd have to assume the leeks are served on the burger itself, given... well... how else would you serve them. They're not exactly a hot side for meat.

After waking up and taking more pain killers (a life I don't miss, much) Bob finds that the Burgerboss game is missing, in this scene all I can make out is "...(comes with a side of compote)" which I can only assume accompanies a Truman Capote reference. And question how exactly they make compote in a burger diner... this would be a challenge I'd like to take on.
Unfortunately, Bob spends very little time in the shop in this episode, so, we don't see much of the "special board"
The burger in the final scene is the "Band on the Bun burger (comes with wings)" which is an awesome send up to Paul McCartney and the Wings! Definitely on the side in this case.

Episode 5: Foodtrucks
"Chorizo your own adventure burger"
This seems like a great idea for a topping. There's the Cheese and Burger Society's Sheboygan for a starting point for this. Chorizo is a bit spicier than brats, though. So, it makes balancing hard to execute on this one. Bob, you are a challenging chap.

another odd continuity error causes the board to change from "Chorizo your own adventure burger" to "What's the Worcestershire that could happen burger" about five minutes in, which I assume is a burger with Worcestershire sauce in the meat. Pretty sure I've done it.

After Gene blows up the truck, another special appears on the board, this one reading "Where have you bean all my life (served with a bed of beans)" which is strange, that the special changed three times in one day. Maybe we can chalk this up to Louise playing with the board? Obviously, a burger served with some kind of bean side?


Well, looking back on the show... when you see the parenthesis framing the add-on, it indicates that it's a side while the specials that don't feature the parenthesis seem be "on burger." The Yams and Brussels Sprouts seem to be sides while the Chorizo and Swiss Chard seem to be toppings. And, now we have a standardization. And now we have me being a little too into this show.

April 15th, 2012: Burger Sunday; New Bacon-ings

Well, I missed Burger Friday this week due to working. And I will, again, this week. So, what did I do? I made "The Gypsy" from The Cheese and Burger Society. I also rolled my "Bob's Burger" theme into this one. I made the "New Bacon-ings" from the pilot episode of the show. "Served with Bacon." I took some liberties with it by making it a much fancier burger than Bob would have served. The Gypsy is a very interesting burger. It mixes a lot of different flavors together, some of which you'd never think would come together well.

The burger is topped with fresh mozzarella and parmigiana cheese. I got the real stuff, not the "shaky" cheese as Paula Small would put it (+5 internets for referencing two Loren Bouchard TV series in one post!). The mozzarella and parmigiana sat atop two strips of thick cut peppered bacon (I believe Hormel brand, I can't quite remember) on top of a 1/3 lbs patty. This construct sat on thinly sliced red onions, tomatoes and cucumbers. The bun was an "Onion Kaiser" bun with ranch dressing. The one gripe I have is that the crunch of the cucumbers mixed with the crunch of the bacon made each bite feel a little odd. Two distinct crunches, one top, one bottom.

Now, I'd never think that Ranch and cucumbers would go well with bacon, beef and Italian cheeses, but I was wrong. The brightness of the cucumbers and Ranch dressing sort of "framed" the other flavors of the burger. I was very impressed with the suggestions of the Cheese and Burger Society.

I really liked it!

Another $20 burger successfully executed.

First picture courtesy of Eater

next burger?
yes, this will be the next burger I make. http://cheeseandburger.com/gypsy

April 11th, 2012: Chicken Escebeche, Rice and Corn

Sorry, no pictures on this one. My bad. My mother and I were cooking up a storm Wednesday night. There's something inherently awesome about Hispanic cuisine. Tex-mex, Mexican, Tapas, Columbian... you name it: if they speak Spanish where it's from, it's fantastic food. In fact, you could blanket statement that to "If they speak a Romantic language" and include France and Italy, if you wanted. But, I guess, the real statement should be "If they speak a language there, they have awesome food," cause I've yet to find an ethnicity/lingual barrier that dictates whether or not food is good.

In anycase, our family definitely has a love affair with Mexican food. One of the most watched cooking shows in the house (yeah, still living with my parents) is Rick Bayless' Mexico: One Plate at a Time, although I must admit: one of the main reasons I watch is because of that daughter of his (that sounds way creepier than it should be, she's in her mid twenties, I think. And it's a joke, I greatly enjoy Rick's journeys round the world). It isn't surprising that his cookbooks "Mexican Everyday" and "Fiesta at Rick's" are our most used cookbooks in the house, either.

I, honestly, can't really track down the exact moment or time in my life that our family gained our affinity to the cuisine of Mexico/Spain/South America. So, I'm not even going to try and explain. It's just like my posts in the past of "Mexican Wednesday." This week my family had Escebeche, Fajitas and my Mother and I just had lunch at Burrito Mexicano, which is the best Mexican I've had outside of a proper restaurant atmosphere.

The Escebeche actually came out of one of Bayless' books, which one? I couldn't tell you. The page the recipe resides on actually floats between the two books, it's been torn out somehow. And the recipe is fantastic. I'm not going to get too specific about it, but it's essentially poached chicken with caramelized onions and carrots in a Jalapeno pickle brine. It's fairly salty, but has a lot of flavors in the mix to combat it. Sometimes, it's a bit on the spicy side. This time, it was not.

To accompany it, we made rice with cilantro and green onions in it, to give it some color and flavor. There were two ears of corn in the fridge that were probably about ready to go bad, and not wanting to let some perfectly good sweet corn go, I proved to my parents that you don't need to butter corn.

I took a chef's knife and cut the corn off the cob (something my mother proclaimed "That's how Rick Bayless does it!" at) and then put it onto a bit of tin foil. The foil then went into a steamer to cook the corn. It proved to be very fresh and sweet tasting corn without any of the "dull, frozen" corn taste that my mother generally covers with a tablespoon of butter. It also retained all of its flavor and nutrients compared to boiling corn on the cob.

It's was a very good dinner, all in all. It delivered on all fronts. I just wish I could figure out my family's fascination with the cuisine.

April 6th, 2012: Bacon and Peppercorn Pork Tenderloin, Sauteed Kale and Parsnip Chips

Ok, I love Parsnips. Not doubt about it. They're the best thing since sliced bread for me. So, I made 'em again. The pork was marinated in a mixture of bacon, bacon grease, cracked pepper corns, garlic and salt. It was DELICIOUS. There's not much to tell about this meal, as it's not drastically different from anything I've cooked before. I could gush over the Parsnips, but I won't.

In anycase, something new is the Kale. I'd always wanted to give it a try, since I saw it on Bob's Burgers. I know, I have an H. Jon Benjamin addiction. So, I tried it. I had no idea on how to cook it, so I googled it. The first recipe that came up belonged to Bobby Flay and I figured "why the hell not." It was sauteed with garlic. I wasn't amazed by it. It tasted like "bitter lettuce," but it really did pop once it was sauteed. Although my rabbit, Toki Wartooth, did enjoy the kale. I think it was the first vegetable that he actually ate pretty quickly.

Peppers

I lied

April 5th, 2012: Candied and chocolate dipped Serrano peppers

Well, I'm pushing my whole weekend's cooking plans back a day. But, I did manage to finagle my way into making something absurd tonight. No pictures, though, sorry.

I've got this awkward affinity towards spicy food. I don't know what it is. I love the Mango-Habenero wings at Be-Dubs (is that how you say it on the internet?), I have a collection of hot sauces (many of which were lost during the separation from my previous life)and LOVE Poppers. There's something sincerely strange with the frequency that I eat crazy spicy foods. I'm currently sitting on a collection of about 8 hot sauces currently, which my parents stare at in bewilderment. My favorite has to be the El Yucateco Green Habenero. I find it to be a very aromatic hot sauce with a punch that just doesn't forgive. It really sticks with you.

But, tonight, I went even more insane . I took the second spiciest pepper I could find at the local stores and covered it in brown sugar and backed it for about an hour at 400f.

I then coated them in unsweetened chocolate and powdered sugar. They are nearly inedibly hot, though. It's a bit of a double edged sword on this one.

March 30th, 2012: Burger Friday

Ah, Patrick Warburton. One of the most easily recognizable voices in Hollywood. Him and H Jon Benjamin.

In anycase, talking about Patrick, I made a burger straight outta his universe. His wholesome universe of Cheese and Burger. I love that website. As avid readers know, I am a burger freak, celebrating every weekend possible by making a unique burger. Ranging from simple ideas to stupid crazy open face burgers. Well, this time I went for more of a "$20 burger" idea and crafted something truly artisianal. That word has "anal" in it, hehehe.

So, I used "The Southern Belle" (burger 19) as inspiration. I couldn't find the "pepperslaw" they say to use, and couldn't find sourdough in a size suitable to use for burger buns. Nor could I find "Wisconsin" Gruyere, only Swiss and French. So, I settled for the Swiss, being 4 dollars cheaper than the French (at $8.99).

The burger was a perfectly seasoned 1/3lbs patty sitting on top of dill pickle spears topped with sauteed onion, Gruyere, coleslaw and Sweet Baby Ray's BBQ sauce. I put it on Focaccia bread, a truly inspired idea. I sliced the bread and then buttered it and pan fried it to make "toasted buns" with a unique twist.

The burger was absolutely delicious, almost the most perfect burger I've ever made.

I currently have a Pork Tenderloin marinating for dinner tomorrow night (April 5th) that will be served alongside sauteed kale and baked parsnip chips. Following that, my next "Burger Friday" will be the first step in a journey. A magnificent journey I dub the "Bob's Burgers Adventure." I'll be making burgers based on Bob's Burgers' specials in the show. Most likely starting with the "Never Been Feta (Foot Feta-ish)" or "New Bacon-ings."

Sunday March 25th, 2012: Blackened Catfish and Parsnip Chips

I really lapsed on keeping this one on the page. Here's the pictures. The blackened catfish was pretty straightforward. The parsnip chips were delicious, unexpected and a revelation. Parsnips are now my favorite veggie, hands down.

I made a great sauce with one drop Dave's Insanity sauce, three tablespoons miracle whip, one tablespoon yellow mustard and one tablespoon worchestershire.  It was pretty awesome.

I've actually been cooking up a bit of a storm, but I've been revisiting old recipes, so, I haven't felt the need to repost.

Those revists include: Drunken Fajitas, Chicken Fried Steak, Blackened Chicken and Blackened Catfish. None of which really need a new post on here.

Of course, I did learn to love the Parsnip. So, I'll hopefully post solely about the Parsnip and its awesomeness sometime soon.

February 15th, 2012: Sechuan Beef

So, I eased into cooking again. I made Chex-mix for Super Bowl Sunday, Jalapeno Burgers for Burger Friday, Tacos and Alfredo Pasta. Time for something a little more... real, shall we say.

So, I busted out my mom's Chinese Cookbook (cause, we can't not have any ethnicity of cook book in this house) and found a nice recipe for what I had on hand. Sechuan Beef.

Ten minutes later I had some thawed steak tips and started going to town. I've always been a big admirer of Chinese food. Well, any Asian cuisine, actually. Let me broaden that a little... Middle Eastern, Indian and Asian Cuisine. Wait, no, it great broader, still: Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Indian and... hold up, does Spanish count as Mediterranean? What about Ethiopian? Also, German, French and English food. Don't forget Irish. Did I just describe the entire Eurasian continent? Oh, and American food. And Hispanic. Wait a second! Is there a food I don't like? Nah, there isn't.

In anycase, I tried my hand at Chinese again, having successfully made Sweet & Sour and General Tso's chicken in the past, this should be a breeze. I didn't have any fresh ginger on hand, so I used dried ginger powder. Same for garlic. Turned out fine, though. I'd go further than fine, considering I ate three helpings of it over the course of the night.

I, truly, was impressed with this meal. I found it very bright in flavor with a touch of bite to it, without being hot at all. I did take a shortcut with the rise and eggrolls. I used Chang's brand frozen eggrolls and left over white rice from when I ordered Chinese food earlier in the week. I didn't mind. I gobbled it up pretty fast.

After this, I didn't stop cooking, although I did stop taking pictures. The 5th (sixth meal, if you count my Valentine's Day Eggos) I made was actually a Saturday evening meal I made for my parents. My Drunk Ass Fajitas, which I've never properly documented for this blog. (Actually, I was mistaken: he's a perfectly good waste of tequila) I could have sworn that I had before. I marinate my skirt steak in a mixture of garlic, crushed red peppers, jalapenos and cumin in about a half bottle of tequila for around 6 hours and then cook it up with peppers and onions. It's delicious. Described as having a "bite" to it. I served that with some Spanish Rice from a recipe I got in high-school Home Ec. The meal was delicious. Being back into cooking again, I've found a sort of new energy that I'm very much loving. I'm hoping to keep this going again and keep up with this blog, still.

And for good measure, here's Toki Wartooth trying to chew his way out of an open cage... weird rabbit.

February 14th, 2012: Valentine's Day suckage

So, it's not the kind of suckage that I'd have liked on Valentines Day (I think that's the first sexual joke that ever got put on this blog! Almost a year of good, clean fun... damn) but, it was still suckage. Seeing as I'm alone for the first time on Valentines day since... probably before high school, I sort of short circuited that day. Finding myself a morose mutherfucker, as Jay would put it.

This, Eggo Waffles and microwave bacon, was my breakfast. Dinner that night? A Big Mac meal. It's hard to really care on a day like this for me, so, I went full sad-panda.

February 13th, 2012: Spinach Fettucine Alfredo

So, two days in a row I cooked. This night I made some Italian fair and watched the 2011 remake of The Thing. Turned out to be a prequel. I actually really liked it.

Not much to say. I cooked some cream, butter and parmigiana together. Seasoned it with garlic, salt and pepper and then thickened it with some flour and tossed the pasta in it. It was a very heavy meal. Very delicious. Stood very well on its own and didn't require any sides. It was probably the first successful single person meal I'd made in months. Cooking is a very "social" activity and it's hard for me to find and make recipes for one. Luckily, living with my parents, I can cook for three. It isn't always an option, though.

The friday before this I made my patented Jalepeno Burgers (which are AWESOME, I am a burger-smith) and found myself with about four burgers. Two of which I ate that night, cause... well... I'm'a pig. The tacos from the night before this? There's about a half pound of taco meat in the freezer, now.

This meal, was a perfect single person serving. Something I gotta work on doing.

February 12, 2012: Spicy Beef Tacos

So, I got back into the habit of cooking this last couple weeks. Feels great to not be a slave of Subway, Jersey Mike's, Jimmy John's, Taco Bell and McDonald's again. Though, sometimes you just can't say no to a Big Mac. They are so delicious. This actually was not the first meal I cooked this past couple weeks. It was infact the second out of five, but I forgot to document the first and last of the set.

This night was fun. My parents had been out of town (as most people who read this blog know, I'm living with them again) and I took the opportunity to watch HD things on a 55" screen and hang out with my rabbit. Unfortunately, illness regrettably prevented me from having any "good times" regarding Alcoholic intake and parties. It still didn't stop me from knocking a picture frame off the wall and having a wacky cartoonesque encounter with the dishwasher.

In anycase, I got off of work and said to myself "Thom, you know what you want?! You want TACOS! But, not Taco Bell, you're gonna wanna make them yourself." And then I replied "Why, yes I do. You're correct. Let's get this started."

A quick trip to Meijer (which, by the way, is my most favorite groceria) ended with some beef, cheese and a packet of Taco seasoning. Taco Bell brand... for $.89. But I ended up not using it. Thinking I forgot the seasoning at the store, I decided to hunker down and make myself up some totally bad ass homemade tacos. From straight scratch.

There isn't a whole lot to be said about cooking tacos. Brown the meet a little, throw in the seasoning, cook, heat up tortillas and serve. Done. I ended up making them a little spicier than I'd intended. I really wanted a nice, bright flavor in the meat, but a little too much Chipotle and Red Pepper resulted in an almost unpleasant set of tacos. I've grown vulnerable to spicy food, again! WHAT HAS HAPPENED TO ME!

The past couple weeks retaught me how cathartic and nice it is to cook and reminded me what other activities, in the past, have left me feeling nice and whole and I found myself playing guitar more than before and going to the shooting range to flex my sharpshooting eye. So, I kept with the trend and cooked.

Funny thing is: I found the Taco Bell seasoning packet in a Meijer bag later that night when I used it to clean the rabbit's cage.

January 3rd, 2012: nothing

My New Years resolution was to stop lying to myself about how things are. It's hard to put that together with things I read about "friends" on facebook.

I guess it really should have been "stop being such a depressive fuck!" but, that's too esoteric. I'll try to get cooking more. Thursday, I'll try to put something delicious together for my parents.

Living at home has helped me greatly, but I feel like I've really pushed myself out of the location of general malaise that I suffered from in the past. New Years puts me in a bad spot, given my plans I made with Blair. Hearing about people getting engaged during the holidays sent me spiraling.

But, on the other side of things, work and my parents have kept me from spiraling the way I had in the past. So, I'm putting up this insane post about nothing for... what reason? Well, to keep this blog going. So... hope for something fun on Friday.

PS: a meal I missed on here I wish I didn't was homemade General Tso's Chicken. Wish I got that one on here.