Casserole Crazy

Today I made casserole for my local soup kitchen. I’ve been saying I was going to do it for months, and shamefully, have just gotten around to participating. I made my deconstructed zucchini lasagna (a dish that would pretty much be a lasagna if I’d used lasagna noodles and layered it instead of mixing it). I doubled my original recipe (after the jump) and filled two 9 X 13 baking dishes. Even doubling the recipe, the grocery bill came in at just around $20, so in addition to this meal being delicious and hearty, it’s a great way to feed at least 12 people on the cheap.

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Oh wait, I did. Someone just beat me to actually making it.

I was recently bragging to my friends that if I ever had some crazy partnership with Pyrex, the first thing I would design would be a labyrinth-like dish so that every piece of casserole would be a crusty edge piece — because everyone knows that the crusty edge pieces are the best part of any casserole.

Then I went to the website for my favorite, local (favorite and local, not just favorite of the locals) kitchen store, The Brooklyn Kitchen, and what do they have featured on their front page? The Baker’s Edge. Supposedly it’s for brownies, and casseroles are better in glass dishes (or so I’d like to think), so maybe there’s still hope for The Crusty Casserole.

So, Pyrex, if you’re looking for the next big thing, call me.

[The Brooklyn Kitchen: The Baker's Edge]

Yesterday I attended the UnFancy Food Show at the East River Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. While I was there to help my friend Scott sell his books and hand out postcards for my upcoming cookbook, I had the good fortune of being positioned between the McClure Brothers, who make their own pickles, and the Mast Brothers, who make their own chocolate. Their samples were both abundant. And you’d think eating chocolate and pickles all day would have kept me from eating my weight in pork on a stick (is it a problem when one measures in skewers? “I had six skewers of pork!”), but it did not. I now have my own little pork belly. And I love it.

[The UnFancy Food Show]

Image via UltraClay’s flickr.

Check out Dating Advice From Food Writers at Nerve.com, where I interviewed my friends Julie Powell (Julie & Julia), Adam Roberts (The Amateur Gourmet), Kara Zuaro (I Like Food, Food Tastes Good) and Scott Gold (The Shameless Carnivore).

Here’s a sample:

What’s the sexiest food?
Anything with truffles. If a non-meat product can have an animal essence, it’s the truffle.

What should I cook for someone I want a long-term relationship with?
Something homey like spaghetti and meatballs. If you’re making a family recipe, you’re opening up the conversation to talk about your past.

[Nerve: Dating Advice From Food Writers]

Recently, Cindy McCain, wife of Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, submitted a recipe to Family Circle for her oatmeal-butterscotch cookies. Only it turns out, they weren’t exactly her oatmeal-butterscotch cookies. Or if they were her oatmeal-butterscotch cookies, they happen to be made the same way as someone over at Hershey’s makes them — because the same recipe appears on the company’s website.

Forgetting for a moment that oatmeal-butterscotch cookies sound pretty gross, I have to say, this kind of shit happens in the culinary world.

For example, I grew up thinking that my mom’s green bean casserole was hers. It was creamy on the inside, crunchy on top and just plain delicious. Of course my mother had created it! Except, she hadn’t. Once I started making it myself, I learned it was the recipe from the Durkee onion can. Was I devastated when I learned this? Sure. But had I not been writing a casserole cookbook and actually had to investigate and pay close attention to these things, would I have gone on thinking that my mom had created the green been casserole I grew up on? Probably.

Unfortunately, as the Huffington Post reveals, the similarities are too close for comfort. McCain didn’t even bother to change anything about the recipe, save taking the name Hershey’s out of it. So unless her mother passed down this recipe without telling a young Cindy that it was ripped off from the company, it’s possible Cindy ripped off Hershey’s on her own.

Now considering this isn’t the first time the McCain clan has come under fire for stolen recipes, she should have been more careful. A few months ago, Cindy got in trouble for posting a Rachael Ray recipe as her own on John’s campaign site.

But can you blame her? With all the time she spends putting on her make-up do you think she really has the time to create recipes?

[Us: Cindy McCain, Bill Clinton Plagiarize Cookie Recipe, Website Reveals]

Originally posted at Scanner.

Lately I’ve been throwing around the idea of moving to Portland, Oregon. I hate the winter, I love all things green and am not at all bothered by rain. So it’s quite a coincidence (or a sign, if you believe in such things) that the Mercury, one of Portland’s alternative weekly papers, mentioned Casserole Crazy in an article on The New Casserole. Even more coincidental, considering I’d set my sights on the Mercury as my Portland dream job.

Anyway, the article makes it very clear that Portland needs some Casserole Crazy and the author will definitely get a copy of my book when it comes out in October.

Okay, I’m no Scarlett Johansson, but I will be appearing on the Brooklyn Cooking Dating Show, and as far as I know, they have no dude to set me up with. Are you a man who lives in Brooklyn? Do you like to cook? Do you like to eat more than you like to cook? If so, you should consider applying to be on the show. But first, some facts:

• If you are paired with me, you will learn to make my signature casserole. Then you will eat it. Then you will be happy.
• I do not trust skinny foodies.
• I will not date or sleep with vegetarians.

If this sounds good so far, and you live in Brooklyn and do not like the Yankees (their rule, not mine) and can spell (my rule, not theirs) sign up. Even if you don’t meet those requirements, check out the show.

The Brooklyn Cooking Dating Show

Due to some unfortunate incidents in my former apartment, I’m spending November couch surfing and cooking when I can. Obviously, I’m not doing much blogging. I am, however, perusing my usual reads and this morning found what was probably the most clever, and probably quite expensive piece of marketing material I’ve ever seen: a food company’s annual report that must be baked before all of the content shows up on the pages.

My dad refuses to come to my website. I shouldn’t be all that surprised. He had to hang up the phone after he called to tell me that my health insurance statement had been sent to him and I warned him that he would find birth control on it. We didn’t talk for weeks after that. Later, he googled me, only to find a first-person piece I’d written on colonic irrigation. I guess the “my ass had finally lost its virginity” line really got to him.

Tonight, he called to tell me he’d seen that I’d made the July 8 New York Times. He had searched that site for my name, assuming it was safe and that he’d not find anything he didn’t want to. I told him to visit the press section of CasseroleCrazy to see more, and that there was only “one thing” that might bother him, “but I’d be happy to warn–”

“No, I won’t go to your website.”

“But it’s just–”

“No, Emily. Drop the subject.”

“But I can warn you wha–”

“Emily, drop the subject now. I’m not going to your website.”

“This is ridiculous, it’s not even-”

“DROP the subject, Emily.”

Alright. How ’bout them Chiefs?

I forgot to mention that I was going away to be a summer camp counselor for a month. So, um, yeah. I’m back now, and here are a few things I learned while I was away:

1. I can make Seduction (a twist on my signature mac ‘n corn casserole) institution style and it’s still damn good.

2. I can do the whole Food-Network-talk-while-I-cook thing.

3. I cannot keep track of the tape when doing said Food-Network-talk-while-I-cook thing.

4. I want to live in New Hampshire.