DYI Food Blog

Brian Buirge and I had a two night cooking class in which each of us demonstrated our culinary expertise.

After another fruitless attempt to find a steak in Kent Ohio, I found myself delivering an impassioned monologue on proper steak preparation (as many of you know I am prone to do). Brian was so touched emotionally by my speech that he insisted that I cook steaks at his house a few nights later. Not to seem ungrateful for the detailed lesson in chemistry and anatomy that was to take place, he also invited me and two other grad students over the next night for an equally expert sushi preparation demo. Both episodes were enlightening and both episodes produced restaurant quality food (I exaggerate not one jot).

Also, Bacher and I found a bar that sells $1.25 cheeseburgers on Thursdays.

We purchased some raisin and sunflower seed bread (that only had four 

other ingredients, I have literally been looking for this since day one at Kent) and 

some organic bleu cheese (the best I have ever had) from the whole food 

store. So naturally we made fancy hors d'oeuvres.

Sweet potatoes for the fried starch component.

3 pounds of boneless angus ribeye. I would have preferred a bone-in, 

choice cut, but this is the best that Giant Eagle can do. If you're in SC  

right now and you don't know what Giant Eagle is just remember 

that it is to be avoided.

Brian, being true to the game, purchased a cast iron skillet just for this 

meal. This is the wine sauce that I made from the drippings (the word 

on the tip of your tongue right now is velvet).

The final result: 2.25 inches of perfection. considering how many years 

it's been since I cooked a real steak I think it turned out pretty well.

Brian preparing sushi. I dont know what the name of the roll is, but it 

was different from anything I have ever had and better than most of the 

sushi I have had in restaurants (the secret is in the rice preparation.

G-money holding Brian's delicious product. Lemons, who would have 

thought they would work on sushi?

Sushi chefs Rutherford and Buirge working hard.

Sarah Rutherford (whose web address doesn't seem to be working) working with 

pickled radishes that taste terrible until they are in sushi form. She also made some 

veggie rolls that were exceptionally good.

I even took a shot at making a Brian roll. It looks like a dog got ahold 

of it, but, in my defense, I had a dull knife (also, I don't know how to 

make sushi).

Then I ate my creation. And it wasn't as good (despite 

having the same ingredients).

Basically, this is a lot of cheeseburgers (some of 

which we brought back).