decaffeinature

Whoo! I am bad at consistent blogging when I get deep in the thick of things.

Contrary to that statement, I’m working on launching another blog, focused on Asian cuisines — cooking, eating, restaurant reviewing, appliance-and-dishware-geeking, etc. I’ve found that a blog (especially a food blog) with a more specific focus tends to be more engaging, easier to maintain and find postable ideas for, and easier to adapt to a growing niche audience. (Never fear; decaffeinature will still be here! Though .com rights might be shifted around if the newer blog strikes gold.)

That being said, I really need to work on my branding and media presence.

I’ve decided to nix the decaffeinature Facebook page because I have zero time (or knowledge of how) to beef that up. Food blog Facebooks I like from my personal account actually end up being exact replications of Twitter feeds or “Hey, I posted this!” linkage. So, that’s going away.

Second, I’m combining my Twitter presences so I am no longer schizophrenic. Also, I tend to tweet and retweet mostly food-related (sometimes grammar-related) content from my personal account anyway. Decaffeinature and the new, as-yet-unpublished blog will all appear in tweets from my personal account, @rachaelmstuart.

I apologize if any of this is confusing, but throughout the years I have been learning and adapting my knowledge of social media to better fit my professional and personal needs. I don’t plan on making my blogs international, cookbook-selling successes anytime soon, so a universal account is absolutely perfect. Plus, you’ll get to know me better as a person.

I promise and pledge to start cleaning up my personal account to better match the needs of my readers, my blogs, and my career goals. As always, I am open to complaints and criticisms.

So, if you think you’d like to continue hearing about my unhealthy and unamusing addiction to eating or staring at food, make the switch with me.

If you’ve just about had enough of my nonsense and my extreme lack of posting, I understand if we must now part ways at this fork in the proverbial pot roast.

Thanks for being here, either way.

OK, so the only reason I call this a panini is because it was melted together on a panini press.

But I’m going to pretend you can’t tell the different because of my crappy picture quality.

The great thing about grilled cheeses (sandwiches, really, or salads) is that you can throw anything together and make something new every single time. As long as you keep flavor profiles, saltiness, sweetness and proportions in mind, you really can’t go wrong.

I saw the bottle of Sweet Baby Ray’s BBQ sauce in the back of our refrigerator and was shot with a lightning bolt of inspiration. Cue usage of random scraps, veggies and breads, and I had a fiery sandwich 10 times better than a Burger King Fat It Your Way anvil.

Spicy BBQ Panini (yum)

2 slices sourdough bread
a few thin slices of creamy cheese, like havarti
1 1/2 – 2 strips cooked bacon
thinly sliced red onion
1/2 roasted red pepper, in water or oil but drained
sliced jalapeno
your favorite BBQ sauce

1. Assemble, trying to separate juicier elements from the bread to avoid sogginess. If melting in a sauté pan like a grilled cheese, use something to weigh down your sandwich and ensure a tightly compacted, melted-together ‘wich.

And then…

Eat a grapefruit!

I don’t have much to say, except

1. It’s bad enough I don’t usually have the time to make my quick breads from scratch and that I can’t buy fresh blueberries around here, in this season, worthy of the sweetest muffin you’ve ever seen.

2. I have never heard of this cinnamon muffin. Have you?

3. The brand is Krusteaz, though I am sure many other companies offer a very similar device. Doesn’t Krusteaz remind you just a bit too much of “The Simpsons”? I can’t get the image of a clown, a crusty muffin pan and mold out of my brain.

4. I don’t want to “just add water” to this tube contraption, shake away like I’m on a housewife commercial and pour from the same container. This takes the fun out of reading directions, adding eggs and/or oil, using a giant (brightly) colored mixing bowl, choosing between a whisk or a spatula (depending on directions citing “fold” versus “combine until NO CLUMPS REMAIN OR ELSE”), etc.

5. Where are the blueberries, and what blueberries must they be if they’re somehow going to be suspended in this one-stop mix? I don’t believe in your integrity, Tubeberries, and I don’t like being made a fool.

6. We’ve already discussed the brand name. What about the product name? One Step, no matter what, doesn’t make me feel safe or better about what I’m making. I chose to bake blueberry muffins because I wanted to sit and eat three with a tall glass of 2% milk. In so doing, I wanted to take the long, enjoyable route — 10 minutes and the ingredients and tools outlined above — so that I might feel like I’ve gained something other than too many extra calories. I mean, if I could One Step a cake into my stomach, that wouldn’t be such a bad idea, but certainly not a good one either. If I could One Step my roast chicken with pan gravy, no one would respect my cooking abilities.

And maybe that’s the point. Anyone’s lack of culinary prowess is totally OK — even I get nervous at the thought of filet mignon. But to have the grocery industry dumbing us down with do-one-thing products is kind of sad. Please tell me that using a boxed mix and a few extra hands isn’t so taxing that water and a tube will make your life that much better.

I imagine this as some kind of warning about the future of our food.