Wild Thyme to Cook
Dash of salt
Here you can get a peek into what I’m currently in to. Basically My life blog so to speak. Restaurant and food reviews, products I like and where to get them, Books I’m reading, BS with momming and business, all the salty sweets.
So intensely interesting… LOL
Food for thought
Thursday, October 24, 2024​​
These are a few of my favorite things
Good Morning and Happy Thursday! I’m simply checking in and trying to teach myself how to do this blogging stuff. I thought this morning I’d share a few of my favorite household cooking staples. And Where you can get them. I get a lot of questions about the butter I use. I often shop at the Super King in the LA area. There are many of them I’ll plop a link here for you. They are all fairly similar and have great deals on a lot of the imported Middle Eastern and South American products I love. I often find a lot of fun imported butters there, from around the world. It’s hit and miss but ever a waste of time.
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I also rely on Five Points Meat Market for delicious and consistent, cleaned and deboned chicken thighs. We mainly use those as our source of protein. They have delish flavor and are so versatile for marinating and grilling on the black stone. Often the kids will eat this with hummus and fruit for dinner and be so satiated and happy. The BBQ family pack at Five Points is a great deal and lasts us a family of 4, 2 to 3 meals. It includes 4 gigantic hamburger patties, a pack of huge hotdogs (they are really spectacular, I think there are 4 or 5 in the pack) and 2 lbs of chicken thighs, they do offer some marinaded ones, but we always prefer plain.
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Well I hope this was insightful for you in this area of our coast. I’m learning to find a positive but authentic to me voice here so please bear with me as I evolve daily here.
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Xo…Natalie
Sunday, October 20, 2024
I’ll never love a tiger tail or apple fritter the way I did the Friday before yesterday…
Bad fryer oil boils my guts!
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Ya pretty gross topic! I know. About as gross as the fishy, motor oil flavor in my mouth yesterday when I bit into a glorious, not so glorious apple fritter. I had no more than 2 bites before I tapped out and subsequently suffered horrible stomach burning for the remainder of the day. In fact all 4 of us suffered this. It was enough to make an 8 year old swear off donuts, unless mom makes them for life. Now you know that’s bad.
I am no amateur when it comes to fryer oil! As a classically trained chef and a woman who has cleaned many an industrial fryer in my 25 years in the hospitality sector, I am TO-BE-Listened-to… Restaurants, and I mean all of you. Especially, the new ones who have only been open a few months, there is zero excuse to not change, filter or clean your fryer oil.
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It’s nasty, it tastes like motor oil smells, July in Anaheim. Listen, it’s already quite unappealing and gruesome to think of these oils restaurants often use being derived from the spent bi-products of industrial manufacturing. And then we have folks in the Hospitality industry taking it one step further and not, at the very least, filtering it. And, undoubtably not actually changing it! This is even more so infuriating when these establishments exclusively serve one specific item which is fried. Let’s say for instance, donuts.
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Ok, let’s get serious. I really don’t need an apple fritter. No one really does. But when you just want a few bites maybe every few months when the fall weather is changing and all is getting cozy. What a let down when it tastes like fish and makes you sick. Canola oil is the worst offender. I recently listened to a Milk St. Pod where Sarah Moulton and Chris Kimball swore off the stuff for life. I agree. I don’t use it, we are a first cold press olive oil and butter family. I highly recommend imported olive oil, from the Middle East. Locally it is sold at Santa Cruz market. I use it in everything from baking to frying. The high temp cook is not a concern, and it’s 100 percent better for you. You may have recently seen me frying homemade egg rolls in it.
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Ok, well happy Sunday! Feel free to reach out and let me know your thoughts via email. I love discussions!
Xoxo…
Natalie