Tag: food

I can’t believe it took me so long to think of this. Portioning out the pints.

Portioning ice cream from a pint has always stuck me as being a pain.  Because the pint is not a cylinder with straight sides, it’s hard to estimate when where just one quarter of the ice cream is.  And now, New Seasons has a special birthday ice cream with Ruby Jewel Salted Carmel, chocolate cake and fudge on top.  How to get it out without disturbing the layers?

Ah-hah!  I realized I could just cut the whole thing into quarters, slicing neatly through the cardboard edges of the pint.

Here you can see the layers.  I pulled one off for myself and wrapped the rest in a bag and stored it in the freezer.

Williams Ave and just one picture from our food tour.

Matt, his mother Linda and I are on our way to a Forktown Food Tour of N. Mississippi Street.  I wanted to update you on the ch-ch-ch-changes on N. Williams Avenue first.  This sign was photographed in January.

Across the street, this building has undergone a huge transformation.  I even have compare/contrast photos for you.  Now:

Here’s what it looked like on 1/28:

And here’s just one picture from our food tour.  That is a huge shelf of bitters.  Read more about it here.

Why yes, I’m making six loaves of bread today.

But I only have two bread pans!  So staggered baking it is.
At the time of this picture, I had two loaves rising, and had prepped the wet ingredients for the other four. When it was time, I poured the milk/water combo into a pot and heated it, then poured some of the warm milk/water back into the jar to loosen the honey.  Then I stirred in the butter–melted in the microwave–and that made it easier to pour the liquid into the dry ingredients while the mixer was going.
The bread turned out great.  But alas,  no pictures.

Kombucha update.

Brewing is going well.  I’ve established a rhythm. I brew on Sundays, transfer the scoby to the new jar and drop chopped up ginger in the finished brew.  The new batch goes in the oven with the light on and the finished brew gets a lid and sits for four days to absorb the ginger flavor.  Then I strain out the ginger (and the bits) and pop the finished kombucha in the fridge.  It’s delicious, and so much cheaper than buying bottles for $3.29.
This is a new batch on the right and a finished batch on the left.  The scoby’s grow “mothers” which are baby scobys you can give away or use to start more batches.  I’ve given one away and used one to start a new batch.  You can sort of see the scoby in the jar on the right.  It’s that grayish looking thing floating on the top.

A Manhattan-off

My Cocktail Book author said, “sometimes you just have to sit down and do the taste test to find out if you are a Bourbon whisky Manhattan person or a rye whisky Manhattan person.”  A. and I accepted his challenge and did just that.  The result?  We are both Bourbon whisky Manhattan people. But we think maybe with lemon garnish instead of cherries, we might enjoy rye whisky Manhattans.  Further tests will ensue.

A stick-to-your-ribs soup.

The first time I made this soup I peered at the finished product and said, “Ugh.  Doesn’t look too great.”  Then I actually ate it and changed my tune. It’s incredibly flavorful, packed with umani flavors.  Some of the ingredients are not ingredients I have on hand on a regular basis, like the seaweed, but I’ve made this several times and it’s just what the doctor ordered on a freezing cold morning.  
To make it yourself, follow the link to Eating Well’s Tofu and Vegetable Stew.

Kale Salad a la Casey.

This summer I had a great Kale Salad made by bride Casey for her wedding.  It was massaged kale and had quoina in it and was very, very good.

Upon receiving a bumper crop of kale from my colleague John, I put together this Kale salad inspired by her creation.

Here’s the recipe:

Bring 1.75 c. water to boil and add 1 c. quoina.  Turn heat to low and cook until done, approximately 20 minutes.

Clean and remove the stems from a whole lot of kale.  2-3 bunches from the store, or a huge bowl’s worth from your garden.

Put the cleaned and stemmed kale in a bowl and add 1 t salt.  Set a timer for five minutes and squeeze the kale in your hands.  Nothing will happen at first, but by the end of the five minutes, the kale will have nicely broken down.  Squeeze as much liquid as you can out of the kale and transfer your kale to a cutting board.

Clean out the bowl, discarding the salty kale juice, then finely chop the kale and return to the bowl.

Grate two carrots on top of the kale.

Cook 2-3 (or possibly 4?) rashers bacon, drain and cool.  The chop into small pieces and add to the bowl.

Put those on top of the kale and carrots.

When the quoina is done, add it to the bowl.

Mix up a curry vinaigrette.  In a separate bowl add 1/4 c. oil, 1/4 c white vinegar, 1 clove garlic, minced, 1 T packed light brown sugar, 1 T minced fresh chives, 1/2 t. curry powder and 1/2 t soy sauce. Mix until combined.

Pour over the salad in the bowl and toss everything to combine.  Good cold, also probably good warm.