Accidental Hedonist

I’ll admit it — one of the better things about having a food blog is the various people sending me their books to plug. As an admitted book fiend, it was difficult for me to come to terms with receiving these books and still maintain a fair amount of “ethical objectivity” that us bloggers are [...]

Now it’s time for one of my favorite features here at the Hedonist – Two different news stories that are somewhat related. From one news source… Hunger In America Rises By 43 Percent Over Last Five Years And from another, House panel votes $844 mln cut in food stamps I believe you can draw your [...]

*sigh* I’m not hitting very well on my recipes of late. Twice now, when reading a recipe, I’ve made a statement to myself along the lines of “well that doesn’t sound right”. Then I’ll sally forth without listening to my own instincts. This recipe is based off of one in Mark Bittman’s new cookbook The [...]

For me, Sundays in Seattle are one of my many simple pleasures. Sleeping in, almost always a luxury the rest of the week, is performed almost as a ritual. After waking up, the only decision that has to be made is “Do we eat in, or do we brunch?” I typically fall on the side [...]

About a year ago, I was approached, via e-mail, by Owen at Tomatilla. I was asked to submit a post or two to his new publication; a book called Digital Dish. It was a wonderful experience, and I ended up impressing my mother as I had now been published in a book — as opposed [...]

This looked better on paper than in reality. That’s the way it goes from time to time. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good recipe. Just not a great one. Being a stew, I expect it to be better over the next few days as the broth mingles with the spices and meat. You can [...]

I’m amazed at how much people seem to like the tasting notes. What is essentially a personal diary of new tasting experiences has seemed to connect with a few people. I find that very cool. At any rate, one night I try a healthy fruit that I’ve never tasted before; the next night, new booze. [...]

Here’s a compiled list of different chile peppers you may come across in your own travels. The number next to the name is the pepper’s Scoville rating. The hotter the pepper equates to a higher number. Sweet bell pepper: 0 : Yes, this is indeed a chile, although we don’t typically believe it to be [...]

Every once in a while, the neighborhood grocery store will stock a unique fruit or veggie in their produce section. Yesterday, that fruit was a pomelo. Never having seen a pomelo before, I jmped at the chance to see just what I’ve been missing. A Pomelo is a citrus fruit. It is the parent of [...]

Get it? Heat? Chile? *taps microphone* Hullo, is this thing on? If you’ll pardon my attempt at lame puns, I want address the issue about what makes chiles, y’know, so hot. The substances that give chile peppers their heat are the alkaloid capsaicin, and other related chemicals. These substances are collectively called capsaicinoids. For the [...]

Jack sent me this last night, which I’m going to quote in its entirity. Stop Factory Farm Dairy Feedlots from Labeling Their Products as “USDA Organic” Under pressure from big agribusiness, the USDA is deliberately refusing to take action against factory farms who are unethically selling their products as “organic.” This blatant labeling fraud is [...]

Y’know, some ideas are better on paper than they are when brought to fruition. Typically, I eat a slice of pumpkin pie once or twice a year. I’ve definately have skewed these stats this year. So here’s the recipe for the pie made with canned pumpkins. As expected, the taste is different. Not better nor [...]