New Year, New Blog

Cooking and crafting hold a lot of similarities, which is probably why I enjoy doing both. Meticulous assembling, lots of ingredients and tools and a final product you can be proud of (sometimes).

For the new year, you'll see both culinary and crafty pursuits on this blog. My current obsession is knitting, but my short attention span has had me jump from jewelry making to soap-making to crocheting food for hungry animators.

So here's my first combo post: See the beautiful new chopping board my parents gave me for xmas? And on top of that is my first attempt at a cable stitch (thx EK for the needles) on some super easy wristlets I found on Lion Brand's website. The yarn is Lion Brand's "Amazing" wool blend.

Lucky Peach Magazine

My husband came back from B&N with a new culinary magazine for me, called Lucky Peach, which is currently on its second issue:

"Lucky Peach is a quarterly journal of food and writing. It is a creation of David Chang, chef/owner of Momofuku, writer Peter Meehan, and Zero Point Zero Production—producers of the Emmy Award–winning Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations."

Those of you familiar with the New Yorker magazine would appreciate this publication. It's is made for people who like to read and not just look at pretty pictures, although there definitely are some fun bits of illustration of the type you'd find in Juxtapoz magazine.

One idea they discuss which I found intriguing was how the method of killing an animal, such as fish, or crab can affect the flavor of the meat. Makes total sense, when you think of all the chemicals the body releases when it's scared to death.

I still haven't been to the famous Momofuku restaurant, even though it's really close to work. Maybe in 2012.

Happy Thanksgiving, with Butter Pecan Tartlets

Recipe from "Land O Lakes, Treasury of Country Recipes"

Makes 3 dozen (I only got 2 dozen, but I wanted to make sure the shells were thick enough and wouldn't break on removal)

Tart Shells:
1/2c butter, softened
1/2c sugar
1 egg
1 tsp almond extract
1 3/4 c flour

Preheat oven to 400. Combine tart shell ingredients, beat at med speed till crumbly (2-3 min). Press 1 Tbsp of the mixture into mini muffin pans and form shells. Bake for 7-10 min or until very lightly browned. Remove from oven. Reduce temp to 350.

Meanwhile...
Filling:
1 c. powdered sugar
1/2 c. butter
1/3 c. dark corn syrup
1 c. chopped pecans
(I also added 1/4 tsp of vanilla and a dollop of bourbon)

pecan halves to top

Combine everything except the nuts of the filling ingredients in a saucepan. Cook over med heat, stirring occasionally till comes to full boil (4-5 min). Remove from heat, stir in chopped pecans. Spoon into baked shells. Top with pecan half. Bake for 5 min. Cool and remove.

Challah

I've written enough about my favorite bread book "Artisan Bread in 5 min a Day" so let's talk about the honey that's in the bread. A while back I had heard that local honey was supposed to help with allergies (at least the pollen and the raw variety). Whether or not that's true, I decided to support some local beekeepers this summer by buying some NYC Rooftop Honey at the greenmarket. Pretty pricey, even for the smallest bottle, but hey, those bees worked hard and it'll take me almost a year to finish this bottle.

On a side note, slathering a slab with Nutella for breakfast is going to make this Monday morning even better.

Butterscotch Apple Cake

This might be my first time using butterscotch chips. Usually I find them too sweet, but they work really well with the apple cake underneath. Found the recipe from Sugar Plum's blog.

I didn't have a 13x9" pan, so as expected, I had to bake it longer for the center to cook through. So if you have it available, use the appropriate size baking dish!

Fiore oils

Got back from Maine yesterday. There was a little store off the main square in Bar Harbor called Fiore that offered olive oil and balsamic vinegar tastings. I passed on the vinegar, but the oils were pretty tasty. I made the mistake of trying their special Butternut Squash seed oil first, which blew away anything after it. It smells and tastes like a cross between pumpkin seeds and peanuts. Their flavored olive oils like blood orange and meyer lemon were a little too strong for my taste. Hoping to try the Roasted French Walnut oil which I just spotted on their site.

Mini Food Series #1: Slider

A couple of years ago, I had a store on Etsy called Yarnyums where I sold crocheted food. I still have a giant trunk FULL of yarn, so now that the weather's getting cold again, I've decided to get back to some hands-on crafting and make a new line of mini food. Here's my first creation, the mini burger, aka slider.