November 24, 2007
The first weekend in November is Franklin County, Massachussetts’ Cider Day, which brings together a bunch of local orchards and experts in the name of all things cider. We spent a lovely, postcard-perfect day at New Salem Orchards, learning how to make cider and enjoying goodies like cider donuts and squash-apple soup.
Above, a fresh pressing of apple pomace.
Ria of Yankee Brew News gives a talk about brewing hard ciders.
May 24, 2007
My article, in May 2007 Chile Pepper magazine.
April 18, 2007
My article (and my boyfriend’s photos) in the new, June issue of Chile Pepper magazine!
April 3, 2007
via Slashfood: An amazing look back at some of the most outrageous fads, Fashionable Food: Seven Decades of Food Fads could make our avant-garde molecular gastronomy look like meat and potatoes.
Here’s a taste of the “The Worst Salad of the Twenties.”
Banana and Popcorn Salad
1 banana, peeled and cut in half, length-wise
1 lettuce leaf
Popcorn
Mayonnaise
Place banana on lettuce leaf. Scatter popcorn over banana and place dabs of mayonnaise here and there. Makes one serving.
March 5, 2007
Over at New York Magazine’s Grub Street they’ve put together a list of NYC’s best PB&J’s. The good news is that it doesn’t take much to try your own version of a chef’s version.
1. The Elvis at Peanut Butter & Co.
“Excellent peanut butter, honey, sliced banana, and optional (but recommended) bacon on white toast.”
2. Chunky Peanut Butter & Jelly triple-decker at ‘Wichcraft.
“They grind their own peanut butter, make their own seasonally inspired jelly (rhubarb in the spring, Concord grape in the fall, and currently plum), and ingeniously layer it between three slices of Pullman-style bread with the jelly on the top and the peanut butter on the bottom, preventing this lofty concoction from becoming a soggy mess.”
3. Peanut butter, banana, coconut, and ginger at City Bakery.
4. The Memphis at Swich.
“Amy’s golden-raisin semolina bread lends this variation on an Elvis (peanut butter, banana, and honey) an unusual flavor profile thanks mainly to the fennel seeds in the bread.” (served warm from a panini press)
5. CB&J at Bouchon Bakery.
“… made with rich cashew butter instead of plebeian peanut…layered with apricot jam between two thick slices of brioche and meticulously squooshed in the sandwich press until the lavishly buttered bread acquires a St. Tropez tan.”
February 15, 2007
Via The Kitchen: “Beautiful oven-to-table dishes help me to serve baked sides with more confidence. I find that with these nesting bakers from Michael Chiarello’s NapaStyle ($128, set of three), I am more likely to think about making roasted vegetables, shepherd’s pie, and casseroles. Before I had this set of bakers, I would have plopped something like this into a practical but not pretty Pyrex bowl. Since the NapaStyle bakers are flat-bottomed, casseroles and squash purees cook evenly and get a perfect crust.”
February 13, 2007
via OldCookbooks.com, from the Ceresota Cookbook: “This recipe is reprinted exactly as found from a charming product promotion cookbooklet circa 1910 by the Northwestern Milling Company, Minneapolis. Make these “Pound Cake Waffles” for Valentine’s Day breakfast and let us know how they turn out!”
Pound Cake Waffles
1 1/4 cups Ceresota flour
1 teaspoon lemon or vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 teaspoon salt
Beat the butter and sugar till light and creamy; add the well-beaten yolks of eggs, then the flour, salt and baking powder sifted together; add the flavoring and beat till smooth and light. Last of all fold in the whites of eggs, stiffly beaten. Bake the same as ordinary waffles.
February 8, 2007
NEW DELHI (Reuters Life!) – Hawkers in New Delhi will be banned from selling their famous street food that is cooked in front of customers, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
Across the capital, hundreds of people from suited businessmen to rag-swaddled migrant labourers wait for their samosa to cook in a hawker’s vat of hot oil or pick up a spice-dusted baked sweet potato.
Guidebooks direct tourists to Parathe Wali Gali in the historic Old Delhi neighbourhood to sample flash-fried parathas as a quintessential part of the Indian experience.
But these culinary traditions could be threatened by a ban soon to be imposed by the Supreme Court as part of new hawking and squatting regulations, the Times of India said.
As part of the authorities’ effort to transform Delhi into what they call a modern, world-class city, food vendors will be allowed to sell only in small, regulated pockets of the city, and only then cold, packaged food they have prepared at home.
Critics say the ban will be difficult to enforce. Extracting bribes from street vendors is seen as a job perk for New Delhi policemen, they say.
“Food vendors pay thrice the bribe that other hawkers pay,” the Times quoted activist Madhu Kishwar as saying. “This will just make it worse.”
February 5, 2007
Readymade has a great step-by-step on canning your fruits and veggies, with recipes! You can pick up Sure Jell on Amazon.com.
November 22, 2006
photo: ° d i °/via flickr
I found it amusing that Puritans once shunned tomatoes because they believed them to be aphrodisiacs. Because tomatoes also belong to the nightshade family of plants, it was commonly believed they were poisonous. George Washington even survived a tomato attempt on his life. Thanks, wikipedia!
