I’m Lifehacker Food Editor, Claire Lower, and That’s How I Eat

Hello. It’s me, Claire. I’m a Nutrition Editor at Lifehacker, and as we study how the Lifehacker staff work , I thought I’d show you how I eat . To keep the conversation going about how I eat , my boyfriend did the interview. Below you will find answers to all sorts of interesting questions such as “How much Diet Coke do you drink?”, “Is Korndog breakfast food?” And “What is a ‘snack’?” Enjoy.

Location: Portland, Oregon

Current job: Food Editor at Lifehacker

What do you eat for breakfast?

I do not eat breakfast most of the working days. When I wake up, I’m too nervous to eat breakfast, and I usually go straight to work. How I structure my day, I write my first article around 7:30 AM because it should be up by 9, which is noon on the East Coast. So I get out of bed and do this and usually write the second article. Sometimes you need to prepare something for this, but usually it is not breakfast. If I’m lucky, these are eggs, because I can eat eggs at about 10:00 am. But sometimes it’s not eggs, it’s like a pork chop, which is okay too, but sometimes it’s cheese sauce or something I don’t want in the morning. So I’ll taste it. But the most successful breakfast routine I’ve ever had is buying a lot of curd and eating curd with halved cherry tomatoes .

For breakfast?

For breakfast, yes, because it doesn’t take my time. Or I’ll just eat three tablespoons of cottage cheese from the container, standing in front of the refrigerator between foods.

So you’re eating breakfast to recharge your batteries for the day?

Well this is only for a week. It’s different on weekends. On Friday, if you’re here, sometimes you buy me a bagel, or I’ll go get us both bagels after publishing my first article, before I have a 3-Ingredient Happy Hour cocktail; for this it is very important to get something in my stomach. But what do we usually eat on weekends? Eggs, I think.

What’s your favorite way to cook eggs?

I really love this scrambled eggs and olive oil that I made.

Oh yes, that’s good.

It becomes very crunchy around the edges and the yolk is still very runny. There is something about this cooking method. I think this is because I put a lot of oil in the pan and it rises just enough to completely cover the white – as if it immersed the white. The protein is completely fried, but the yolk is protruding from the oil, so it remains runny. Poaching is okay, but I really like super slow combat . So sometimes on Sundays when you go to your house or whatever … It will take me 45 minutes to cook the scrambled eggs. They are such a weak fire and they taste like they have cheese in them, but they don’t have cheese in them. But in reality I only do them once every two months because it takes a long time and I am not very patient. A quicker way to achieve this is to add cornstarch to your eggs and you get a similar creamy texture.

So you don’t drink coffee every day?

Not every morning. I do drink coffee sometimes, but I haven’t had coffee lately because I don’t think I really really like coffee. I love dark roasts. I know this city has a lot of vibrant, citrusy and fruity fried foods. And I know it makes me a heathen, but I don’t like it and I wish we could go back to a darker roast. I think my favorite is espresso. I will buy a cold Americano, or if I make coffee at home, I will add roasted espresso to my regular coffee pot.

Do you usually have lunch?

No, I eat twice a day. I think the first one can be called “brunch”, but it is not a brunch. But if I ate something like breakfast, I usually don’t eat lunch or just eat a couple more spoons of cottage cheese. Moses went to the refrigerator, put it in my mouth and continued to work. But if I have not eaten and am very hungry and I accidentally go to the grocery store that day, I will buy sushi at the grocery store. It’s easy and I don’t have to wash my dirty dishes.

This is very bad – for about two months I was at the peak of cottage cheese, and then one day I just got tired of it. And this happens very often. I just get tired of things. It is very difficult to establish any daily routine, because the idea of ​​eating the same thing for two days in a row depresses me for some reason. And I don’t know if it’s because my mom worked hard and I’m tired of big parties. She was just doing a large batch of stew or gumbo – and actually gumbo is the only thing I was happy to eat for several days in a row because I love it – I have to cook gumbo. But yes, I would not call it “lunch.” I usually eat something between 11:00 and 14:00, so I guess this could be called “lunch.” Oh, I’ve been eating turkey breakfast grain dogs this week.If you think about it, corn is a breakfast food dog.

Can you explain?

Yeah. You have a sausage and then a kind of pancake dough around it. These are mainly pancakes and sausage on a stick. I think it counts as breakfast, and Trader Joe’s turkey corn dog is actually pretty good, and not too bad for you. I mean, they are kordogs. I really don’t like to think of food as “good” or “bad” because then I’ll go crazy. But I think I could have gotten more frozen Corn Dogs.

For breakfast? Poached eggs?

No no! Poached eggs are breakfast on the weekend . Corn Dog is a daily breakfast. I cook them: I put them in the microwave and fry for about a minute. But if you just reheat them in the microwave, they become too soft, so I put them in the toaster right away.

I need more corn dogs. I probably need more cottage cheese too. It keeps me from getting hungry because I can put it in my mouth. But what I’m really excited about tomorrow is what I’m going to make for my Sunday brunch – I have Bologna and American cheese so I can start making Bolognese plates again. Do you remember the Bolognese bowls?

Oh yeah. I wanted to ask you what is your favorite cold cuts.

I really love Bologna, and it’s not ironically. I think this is really good. I mean, mortadella is basically Bologna – it’s a more sophisticated Bologna with more fat – sometimes pistachios – but Bologna is good and I get mad when I can’t buy it at New Seasons because they think she is too good for Bologna. I really miss Bryan bologna – the brand that I would eat in Mississippi. We had a family friend who drove a truck for Brian’s company. I like their bacon and I really like their bologna. I like Bologna, which has a red wax around it that needs to be ripped off. What other cold cuts? I really love ham.

Which?

Well, I love prosciutto if we want to imagine that. I’ll just eat it in slices without anything. When I had a Costco membership, I got two giant foods and just ate eight or more slices in a row. The last time I had a Costco membership was when I was married, and my first big fight with my ex was about buying a prosciutto, which he called “overpriced ham.”

Is prosciutto a cold cuts?

This is a gorgeous cold cuts. But yeah, I really don’t like turkey, but I really like ham and honey or ham from Virginia. But as you know, we like thinly sliced, almost shaved. So you can fold it high. I would say that my favorite is ham, prosciutto and bologna. If I could only choose one, it would be prosciutto. But what do I eat most often? Bologna. Most of all I eat bologna. I think it also has the most uses because it is a good lunch sandwich. If you fry it, it’s a good breakfast and you can also make Bolognese bowls, so this is an egg maker. Bologna gives us so many gifts and I think it is really underestimated.

What do you put on your Bolognese sandwich?

Take two slices of white bread, a thin layer of mayonnaise, but you want it to cover the bread from edge to edge. Mayonnaise on both sides, mustard on one side. The nonsense goes to the mustard side, then to the American cheese. Then you put it all together. My grandmother taught me that mayonnaise is important for both types of bread.

What do you like to cook for yourself?

For many days, I no longer feel the urge to cook at the end of the day, so I make popcorn, but that doesn’t count. But if I really want to cook my own food, I’ll make ribeye, baked potatoes, and salad wedge and just make myself a little steakhouse lunch. I’ll even make a gin and olives martini. Sometimes I actually cook the bacon myself, because then I can use the bacon fat to coat the baked potatoes. But lately, I’ve been buying ready-made bacon slices because I really enjoy adding bacon slices to everything.

What else am I cooking? I really enjoy roasting chickens and making chicken labne where I marinate it all in the lab. Because then we can have that evening – with fried potatoes with duck fat and maybe vegetables – and then we can use the leftover chicken to make the enchiladas. Lately I really enjoy making enchiladas. What else? We did Korean BBQ and got a lot of meat from H Mart. Ouch! If I have the foresight to buy grafted koji rice, I prefer to cook shio koji and use it as a pork marinade. Pork chop or pork chops in marinade Shio koji – one of my favorite dishes , but I do not do it so often because I forget to buy fluffy rice.

It looks like if it wasn’t for this job, you would just eat meat and popcorn.

And the salad! And I try to keep fruit on hand, usually clementines, grapes, or cherries. But I ate more salads. Specifically, if I am making a salad dressing for a job that I really like, I was doing that ranch with burnt onions .

What’s your favorite food when you’re sad?

When I’m sad, I love the cheese plate. I will go to New Seasons, they sell cheese pieces, and for a piece of cheese three dollars more. It’s still quite expensive, but you can get a lot of them. So I’ll take blue, something like a gruyere if I find it, and then some more random cheddar or some other shit, and I’ll take it with pickles, olives or some kind of jam. The night before, I took the gruyere we had and dipped it in Bonne Maman strawberry jam and it was a taste sensation.

I’ll also popcorn if I’m a little tired. I use a method where you add a ton of butter to a saucepan , put it in it, and then add Amish cheese powder and nutritional yeast, so you get two kinds of cheese flavor, and then I add MSG on top of that. and it’s fantastic.

So is this what you usually eat for dinner?

These are not all sad dishes. This is usually what I am preparing for my next article. I eat beef stew because I’m trying to perfect a beef stew recipe. I also took some pictures of what I was eating, so let’s take a look at them. Can I do this without messing up the recording? I think I can. Yes I can. Let’s take a look at my photos. So the other day I had a box of Trader Joe’s mac and cheese with bacon bits.

I am changing my question. What were your last five meals?

On Monday, I think I just ate fries and martinis at the Double Dragon. On Tuesday I packed Trader Joe’s mac and cheese. We bought this when I was sick and I didn’t want to cook. Then I put pieces of bacon in it, but I also put some tum on it . And then I had the rocky Haagen-Dazs road with my snack salt for dessert. And that same evening, I dipped cheese in jam. Wednesday! The only photo I have on Wednesday is a cocktail. But Wednesday was our leftover Lebanese meal, blended and fried in oil. It was mostly rice, so it looked like fried rice. Then I added a couple of scrambled eggs and for some reason sour cream. On Thursday I went to the Beast . So I ate one really tasty meal and the rest was like what a raccoon is eating. I should be ashamed, but never. Sunday dinner – here’s a photo. These are Trader Joe’s Gruyere cubes with gherkins, followed by a Ferrari cocktail . And there is actually Juul in the background because you left yours here, and I think I drank it between Ferrari sips.

How to make tomato sauce?

I like to add butter to the sauce. And you think it’s obscene because your people are from southern Italy, but I’ve spent more time in northern Italy. But I think Marcella Hazan sauce is a better soup than sauce. But I think this is a good base. I usually add garlic, wine and some fish sauce to this sauce, but I really like the butter in the sauce. I think it adds wealth. I think it adds a bit of body to it. Plus I’m from the south and we really like butter. But if I do it for you, I will because you can actually taste the oil. I thought maybe I could slip past you, but you caught it every time. You have good taste and feel better after switching from smoking to Juuling. But anyway, if I do it for you, I’ll start with the sausage. Onions, so much garlic, tomato paste, deglaze with wine, whole tomatoes and almost always add fish sauce.

What is snack salt?

Snack salt is a salt that can be eaten by itself, it is Maldon flake – small pyramid flakes. I’ll take a separate slice of salt and crush it! It’s like a microcircuit! It’s like potato chips, but no potatoes. It’s a salty crunchy crust.

What do you like to eat at fairs and carnivals?

I like elephant ear or funnel cake. I like the fried Oreo or the Snickers bar. I, of course, really love the corn dog. Ribbon-cut fries are fun, but only at the carnival. For some reason, I think they are anywhere else at all. Corn. I love corn on the cob or elote. And then anything with lots of cheese sauce. Even if it’s just shitty nachos or potato wedges with cheese sauce.

Do you prefer caramel apples or hard candies?

You know damn well! You know damn well it’s a caramel apple . Candy apples are pointless!

What’s your favorite style of pizza?

So, since I’m from Mississippi, I don’t have much loyalty to regional pizza. My first pizza memory is the Pizza Hut BBQ pizza when I was four years old.

Do you love barbecue pizza?

This was my first pizza. Don’t be a snob! But what “pizza” do I like? I love the collapsible crust with bubbles around the edges and love to have it cooked properly on the bottom. I like the cornmeal on the bottom. Not very sweet red sauce; I don’t like sweet red sauce. I also love Hawaiian. I love pineapple on pizza.

Okay, next question.

No wait. I’m not done with the pizza answers yet! I love Hawaiian. As Natalie Wynn pointed out in her interview , this is the perfect balance of flavors, especially if it comes with pork jerky. Yours is salty. You have acid. You have a sweet tooth. You have a wealth of cheese. It all makes sense. But I also love the Detroit square pie with the cheese in the crust. Rowdy at Ranch is really good and his ranch clothes are really good too.

You dunk pizza at the ranch, don’t you?

I dip pizza at the ranch because you know what? I don’t have these regional shackles that keep me from experiencing good-tasting things.

What’s your favorite fast food place?

Okay, this is between McDonald’s and Taco Bell. I also really love Popeyes. But Popeyes can be a little more expensive. I need red beans and rice, you need mac and cheese, and then we both want mashed potatoes. Why then eat fried chicken if you can’t have fried chicken leftovers? Cold fried chicken is really good. So it’s about forty dollars, but that’s good. Also, here’s a tip! Mix mashed potatoes into red beans and rice. But my favorite is probably McDonald’s. Egg McMuffin, Pancakes, and Diet Coke are my favorite airport breakfast and my favorite hangover breakfast. Although now I have developed the Bologna McMuffin . I also love a double cheeseburger and a few mcnuggets, and I am obsessed with sweet and sour sauce, which is the best sauce for sautéing.

Have you ever eaten at the airport?

I only do this if I have an early morning flight, because I am a very anxious traveler, so I am one of those people who get to the airport one and a half to two hours early, no matter what. But yes, I’ll take Egg McMuffin, potato pancakes, and Diet Coke. Others are grateful for the fact that the food at the airport depresses me. Although I was tempted by Panda Express. If I have a long stopover, I usually grab cheap airport wine – the cheapest they have – or Kalimotho , half red wine and half Coca Cola.

What is your most memorable travel experience?

That is, everything was fine in Copenhagen. And at Relae I didn’t get a full meal, but this celery root dish surprised me a lot. Chef Jonathan Tam said, “It’ll taste like lasagna,” and I’m a man who doesn’t care about celery or its roots, said, “Yeah, of course,” and that’s when it happened. The combination of the spicy oil and all that oil somehow tasted like lasagna – I still think about it.

Also, two years ago I went to France – not for work – and my friends and I were staying at La Pice, Julia Child’s damn house that you can rent. And we went to cooking lessons in her kitchen , cooked and ate all kinds of amazing things. I learned how to make good soufflé and choux pastry, but more importantly, I had to cook and then eat duck and potatoes in a casserole .

But – and this is kind of a trick – one of my favorite things to do when traveling is buying a whole bunch of local potato chips. So go to McDonald’s. The British McNuggets are very soft, but they had a Cadbury McFlarry who ruled. The British are also very good with crunchy flavors. Fried ham chips? Yes please.

How Much Diet Coke Do You Drink?

I just drank two liters in 24 hours.

This is insane. How often do you do this?

I do not keep it in the house on purpose, because I will drink three or four cans a day if I have Diet Coke at home. I try to drink more water. I think it really tastes good with food. It has many rich and salty flavors, but it isn’t as sweet as soda. I mean, it’s sweet, but not like sugar. It does not cover the mouth like sugar. But oddly enough, Diet Coke is the only aspartame configuration I like.

Can we see the inside of your refrigerator?

Wouldn’t it be funny if I said no?

What condiments do you have in your fridge?

At any moment I have to eat sour cream, soy sauce, fish sauce, mayonnaise – I need to eat mayonnaise. Now I have three types of mayonnaise in my kitchen. I have Duke’s , a sugar free southern brand, and Korean mayonnaise, which is very sweet. I must have ketchup for you. And now we are both very passionate about Bonne Maman strawberry jam and got through the can in two to three days.

Are you a big fan of desserts?

Yes. I am one of those who love both salty and sweet. My favorite pastry is the box mix chocolate chip cookies . I love them because they cost three fucking dollars and are collected very quickly. I will use pistachio oil instead of vegetable oil , and it will make it a little more nutty. And sometimes I also use coffee instead of water. And the box mix – the Ghirardelli mix – always has a perfect shiny crust. Chewy at the edges. There is a fake in the center. They are perfect. I see no reason to waste time measuring something. I hate baked goods. I used to be a baker, but it reminds me too much of the time spent in chemistry, with all the weighing and precision, and I just refuse to be a part of it anymore. I gave it up.

But one of my favorite desserts, which I ate very recently – is a banana split. What I love the most about Pied Cow is it’s just a classic. I love ice cream as hell. But the best place for ice cream if I don’t get a banana split? Pinolo Gelato . The pistachio ice cream at Pinolo is so perfect and their fior di latte! If you can just make something that is essentially sweetened dairy – no other flavors – and freeze to make it great, you know your method of making ice cream – or ice cream in this case – is good and you are not. hiding something behind crazy scents.

Do you prefer cocktails, beer or wine?

I used to be very addicted to craft beer and brew my own beer for a while, but now I feel bloated and make me sneeze. Shortly before I turned 30, I started making me sneeze, which seems to be common for people with mold allergies that I have. And since then I’ve kind of lost my taste for beer, although sometimes I drink cheap shitty beer and it doesn’t make me sneeze. The tastier the beer, the more likely I am to sneeze. I really love wine and think that I like good wine, but I avoided really understanding wine, because I’m afraid when I develop this taste, it will be another expensive thing that I will want to spend money on, and I it’s not needed. Because, as you know, I drink cocktails and it helps me to be friends with the bartenders who sometimes help me. But yes, to answer your question: I am a cocktail lover.

What cocktails?

I’m a big gin lover. I’m sure anyone reading Happy Hour with 3 Ingredients already knows all this, but I like martinis and I like tiki drinks, but they feel like fun, casual party drinks. I’ll have a martini any fucking day of the week. I also really love Hanky-Pankies. For some reason, when I DJ, I like Paper Planes, but I only order them then. I also like super-bitter amaro like Campari and Fernet. I like to combine these two qualities for a Ferrari and then sprinkle some salt on it. I add salt.