Bite. Sip. Repeat…

Two, actually.  Cheese for the boys, pear, Gorgonzola, arugula and parmesan for us. Expect a full post on this soon…

My kids like an occasional chocolate milk and we sometimes have chocolate syrup on vanilla ice cream.  We usually buy the “chocolate flavored” syrup from Trader Joe’s.  I remembered an Alton Brown show about cocoa and decided to make my own syrup.

The recipe is pretty simple: water and sugar to make a simple syrup, then add cocoa powder, vanilla, corn syrup, and a pinch of salt.  Full recipe is here.  The recipe calls for “Dutch Processed” cocoa, while I only had Ghirardelli Cocoa Powder on hand.  I took a tip from the comments and added a single tablespoon of butter to the mix with the cocoa powder.

In later research, it seems like it was unnecessary.  The Cooks Illustrated website had done extensive testing and found no difference in using Dutch Processed cocoa or regular cocoa.  I’ll try it next time without the butter.

When it was cooling, it looked like this…

We sampled a bit and it’s very good.  I’ll let you know how it is over ice cream.  Enjoy!

B: Pancakes, scrambled eggs

L: Hot dog, salad

D: Dinner at the In-Laws, thanks Hilda and Wally!

Just some random photos from the last month or so.  Send me any cool/interesting/funny food or beverage-related photos and I’ll include them in the next Random Pictures post.

This one was actually unplanned.  I was making an omelette and and had just halved the avocado and grated the Manchego cheese.  When I diced the bacon, I noticed it looked like a face.  It was much friendlier after I twisted the bacon up into a smile…

We were out of hamburger buns and hotdogs, but had hamburger and hotdog buns.  So I made this.  Not sure if it’s called a hamdog or a hotburger.

Had a quick business meeting at the local coffee place, It’s A Grind.  As I was leaving, I noticed these four guys.  See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil, surf the ‘net?

What kind of recipes are you going to find here? I feel that cooking, like life, has to have balance. Some days it’s about getting dinner on the table in “30 minutes”. Some days it’s about taking the time to cook the challenging recipe from your new cookbook. I’ll be blogging about both types on BSR.

As a father of two boys (3 and 6), we’re always looking for meals that will satisfy both adults and small children. Sticking with the balance theme, we sometimes eat together as a family and sometimes Lisa and I eat after the boys are in bed. That’s usually our time to cook new or more exotic dishes. The boys eat a decent variety of foods, but when we eat together, I don’t want to always eat hamburgers, hotdogs, quesadillas, and chicken nuggets. I also don’t want to cook two meals. So we look for ways to essentially eat the same meal, but keep it tame enough for our kids and interesting enough for the adults.

Last night we had spaghetti and meatballs. This time, we all ate the same thing with salad for the parents and green beans and applesauce for the boys.

Last week we had mac and cheese, which the kids love, but the adults like to be a little more interesting. The boys compromised by letting me add diced ham to the dish and I added some peas to Mom and Dad’s half.

This concept is nothing too revolutionary, but it makes family dinner time a little more culinarily satisfying. And don’t worry, I’m not going to write a book on this “amazing new technique”. Unless I get a hefty advance.

Food blogs. There’s a ton of them. Some good, some bad. Some start well and then fade off. Way too many entries like “Wow, I just noticed it’s been six months since I blogged, I really have to get going”. Some blog about restaurants or recipes or whatever. What’s going to be different about “Bite. Sip. Repeat…”?

Well, besides the consistency factor, I think it will be a couple of things. One, I’ve got several people signed up to contribute to the blog. I’ll be introducing them over next few weeks, but the interesting thing is their diverse attitudes and relationships with food.

Two, we’re not going to get stuck on one subject. We’ll be addressing cooking, shopping, farming, restaurants, wine, and lots of other stuff. Hopefully, there will be something of interest for everyone.

Three, we’ll be listening to what you have to say. Suggestions for content or changes will always be welcome

Please let us know what you think.