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Showing posts from August, 2007

Fine Art Friday

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Die Schwarze Pump (The Black Pump) Check out the Fine Art Festival which will run for at least seven days, which features this artist today.

The Crush is On

First, I must say that de-stemming and crushing a bucket of grapes is an absolutely wonderful experience. I sat outside on a stump, pulling clusters from one bucket and plucking them into a second bucket, one after another, just enjoying the solitude and allowing myself to get lost in thought. As I began crushing handfuls of grapes, making sure none of them eluded my fingers, I imagined these grapes as being my own sacrifice offered to God. All my work, all my difficulties, all my life...broken open and poured out, so the Winemaker could use the juice to make something far greater. So says The Yeoman Farmer who has a number of fascinating reports and ruminations up about grapes, harvesting, and wine. Via Catholicism + Wine .

Cooking for the Beautiful People

Mediterranean Summer: A Season on France's Cote d'Azur and Italy's Costa Bella by David Shalleck Somehow David Shalleck pulled off the feat of making his book suspenseful. The difficulty of achieving that is explained when you realize that the book is about cooking for some supremely privileged people aboard their yacht. Shalleck is trying to find himself as a cook. He has failed what he sees as "tests" from culinary authorities Alice Waters and Nathalie Waag. They understand the essence of cooking and being a chef in a way that he does not even begin to comprehend. In an effort to close the gap, he then embarks on a series of apprenticeships in different Italian kitchens, sponsored by Faith Willinger. Finally, he becomes the personal chef for a couple we know only as La Signora and il Dottore. He has a series of challenges to overcome. First of all, though the yacht, Serenity, has been completely refitted, no one ever had a cook give the specs for the kitchen so

Chocolate Festival Cake

One person took a bite and said, "Peanut butter! I love chocolate and peanut butter!" Another sampled his slice and said, "But it isn't just peanut butter and chocolate. There's some other flavor in there." I told them, "Bananas. It has bananas in it." Yet a third person said, "Is this technically difficult to make? Because I really want the recipe." The first two people chorused, "Us too. We want that recipe." What makes this an unusual conversation is that this was at a birthday party and the speakers were all college sophomores. If you don't have any college aged kids, just think back to your own late teens to realize how unlikely this request for a recipe actually is, to say nothing of the entire conversation. Needless to say, this cake was popular . Hannah's friend, Jenny, picked out this cake from Maida Heatter's Cakes . I had never seen a cake with such a combination of dominant flavors: chocolate, peanut but

Coming Soon ...

The cake that made three college students ask for the recipe. And if you know college students, then you know how rare that is. Now I just have to find the time to type in the recipe, amidst prepping for Hannah's birthday celebration en famille tonight and last minute purchases to prep her for going back to college tomorrow.

The Nut Museum

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"In the outside world, nutcrackers are the nuts' mortal enemy," she explains. "Here, nuts and nutcrackers can be friends." I am so sorry that the Nut Lady died before we got a chance to visit her museum . She really sounds like she had a great sense of humor. Though her museum is closed, the virtual museum lives on on the internet. Check it out.

Fine Art Friday

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Tomato Sill No. 2

A Delightful Sampler of Recipes from Around the World

STREET FOOD by Tom Kime This cookbook is a charming if quick look at the recipes of street vendors all over the world. Laid out with DK Publishing's customary focus on photography and clean style, the recipes and prose are highlighted in a way that literally made my mouth water (and that is not enviable when one is reading at 11:00 at night with no way to get Spiced Grilled Chicken with Coconut Cream!) . Author Tom Kime had the enviable task of traveling the world to choose the best of the best, eating his way through the streets of India, Sri Lanka, the Caribbean and more. The result is a collection of recipes are that are both savory and simple. I especially enjoyed the Indian and Southeastern Asian recipes, but my mouth is wired that way. I have the Potato and Cumin Curry and Crispy Paratha (stuffed with scallions, ginger, cilantro, and jalapeno) marked to try. Even though the Southern Europe recipe selection was not what I usually think of (showing just how varied the recipes

Brunswick Stew

I have meant to share this recipe with y'all so many times. However, the cookbook (my beloved The New Doubleday Cookbook ) is huge and the idea of lugging it to the office (yes, I do too much blogging at work!) stopped me until this time. Today I am at home waiting for the oven repairman to come (scheduled time between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ... and you thought that cable companies were bad about making people wait upon their convenience) and so have remembered to type this in. This is a family favorite. My own family made it often in the sumer as I was growing up, although not from this recipe. It always was one of those "no recipe" dishes as I recall. When I came across this recipe it added just enough "umph" to make it even more savory and tooth licking (the addition of tomatoes and a bit of sugar to the broth are the essentials of what is different). I always make a half recipe because that makes plenty for a meal and gives us half left for the freezer. Serve