Who are you people, and what is "Food Lab," anyway?

So glad you asked!

Food lab is the brain child of Jim Engel, aka "Chef Spouse."  It starts during the 2009 NFL playoffs.  Chef Spouse and I (Elizabeth Engel, your humble correspondent) love to eat, love to cook, love to entertain, and LOVE the NFL (specifically, the Philadelphia Eagles).  All during football season, we cook every weekend and have people over every weekend to watch the games (thanks to the magical invention of Direct TV and the Sunday Ticket). Which is AWESOME.  Until the second week of February, when football season is over.  Normally, we spend a few weeks totally depressed, pick ourselves up, and move on with our spring and summer.

Not this year.

This year, Chef Spouse started thinking...we love to cook. We have friends who love to cook. We love to entertain. We have friends who love to entertain. We're all trying to learn more about cooking and improve our skills. Experimentation is tough, though. You don't want to do it for a dinner party - what if it flops? Weeknight dinners are pretty much out, too - no time. And what you REALLY need to do is make the same thing over and over with slight variations to determine which combinations of ingredients and technique produce the best results. But 2 people eating 3 dozen eggs in one day is not a good idea. 

Hence, Food Lab.

The mission? Gather a bunch of food-loving friends. Pick an ingredient or a technique. Do a little pre-planning to make sure you have all the tools you need. Gather in someone's kitchen on a weekend. Bring plenty of booze. Cook. Taste. Test. Render a verdict. If it all goes to hell, give it to the dog and order takeout.

This blog will document our experiments in cookery and hopefully shine a little light on classic ingredients and techniques.