Outstanding in the Field is a group that travels the USA all summer by bus throwing lavish, farm fresh dinners in stunning locations. The dinners begin with a tour of the farm. A table for 60 in a vineyard, for 200 on a beach…they have a beautiful idea here. Sign up for the newsletter to catch early notice of next year’s dinners.
And who wants to make grilled pizza with me?
Images from their blog, which is pure eye candy for foodies.
Grill them, put them in soup, take them to the next BBQ and wow your friends. The smaller the head (the flower!) the better.
I have said it before and I will say it again, Omnomicon is a fabulous food blog (with a weirdly not fabulous blog theme). She recently whipped up a little somthin’ she calls Healthy Rhubarb-Parfait-Cobbler-Type-Thing (image from the blog). When Audrey and I get our drunk food blog running (this weekend, hmm?), I’m going to name recipes like that.
Unrelated: I have iTunes DJ, the overly swanky new name for iTunes Shuffle, enabled, and it put on R. Kelly’s “Suicide.” It’s a groover, with about two minutes of stream of consciousness singing. That guy just does not know when to stop, I love it. He very often gives up on whatever chorus and other structure were loosely holding a song together and just yammers. Sample: “So I’m gonna get up out this chair…and catch me a train…and get wheeeeerrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeee you are.” Oh, Kells.
Remember Anna the Red, maker of those crazy complex bento lunch boxes that made the blog rounds? This is her recipe for Totoro cream puffs. If you aren’t up on your pop culture (remember the Ambassadors of Cute?), Totoro is like the Mickey Mouse of Japan. I have a large stuffed Totoro at my house that people invariably end up hugging while watching movies.
Quick, someone host a potluck.
Artichokes from the Portland Farmers Market
My friend Jo’s gumbo spices for Lovejoy Food.
Isn’t that a great idea? These are my two favorites from Inspired by Nature, on Life Lines.
Kris Hase describes herself as, “an interactive media/marketing strategist/designer/developer/producer/content provider and artist” To organize her portfolio, she uses a picture of her face divided into left brain projects and right brain projects. Very cool idea. She also has a gorgeous cooking blog.
The Food Timeline, put together by a refrence librarian. And you know how I love reference librarians.
Ha. Via @marcjohns
What happens when you and several of your friends volunteer for a swanky literary event with an open bar?
You commandeer a bidding number and decide that you’re each going to pitch in $100 to have a truffle making party for 30 people, hosted by a local chocolate shop.
It’s no wonder I’m always strapped for cash.
Thanks for the pic, Brian.
Search for a participating shop near you. I’ll be visiting the Pearl location, probably the Yamhill location near my work, and with any luck also the Hawthorne location. Free cones 12-8pm, peeps.
This horrible ad distracted me from my latest internet crush, Jack Gray of Anderson Cooper 360. He’s writer/producer/very funny/has dog and he loves Twitter (@jackgraycnn). And he appears to be cute.
But this ad! I thought it was an anti smoking ad, and that tube was a breathing device. But no! It’s gushing air from his face. So gross. What’s worse?
The website. This is all the US Health Department could come up with to fight obesity? Lame iStock photos, bullet points, and a section on Portion Control In Front of the TV? That’s it?
GUYS. This cheeseburger is not getting people’s attention.
But fret not, fat Americans. I have a solution. A campaign you will pay attention to. A campaign you will check in on daily and be reminded that you are a tubster. US Health Department, meet LOLCATS.
Ready for it?
Here’s your new ad, Health Department:
Yesterday I had friends over for brunch with french toast Matthew made using donuts. Wait, let me break that down for you. First he made the donuts into bread pudding and let it sit overnight. Then he sliced the bread pudding, dipped it in egg, and made it into french toast. The results varied (cake donuts are a go, sprinkled and filled donuts are a no-no).
Needing something to do next, we loaded in the car and headed to the mall hoping to get a picture with a guy in a bunny costume, kids and lines be dammed. But the mall was closed for Easter, something apparently only people like us (mall-avoiders) and homeless guys didn’t know.
How do you find a place where there will be a guy in a bunny costume? You call the Library Reference Line at (503) 988-5234. You can ask them anything. Don, who works for the library, says they get questions ranging from “how do I tell someone I love them?” to “how do I remodel my house?”
I asked where we could find someone in a bunny costume, and without cracking up she put me on hold. When she came back she had the Oregonian event listings and, still straight-voiced, said the only one with a bunny was the Oregon Humane Society, which would also have real bunnies. Reference librarian, you are amazing.
There were indeed real bunnies, and they loved themselves some Italian parsley. That’s Lily. If you live in Oregon, you have to go visit the OHS. It’s clean and big and stunningly organized, with a cat side full of themed play areas and comfortable beds. Don returned with a cat named Earl, a laid-back stripey dude.
Thanks to Abe for the picture and Plumpy for resending it to get around my tech-sad phone.
Update: A friend who shall not be named wrote to tell me that once, in high school, her and her teenage friends called the reference librarian hotline and asked if semen is kosher. The librarian reported back that if the man is kosher, it is. I wish the reference librarians kept a blog of questions they receive, wouldn’t that be an incredible read?
Wowza.
Via Fuse#8
Pretty much sums it up with “it’s the strange little snacks you end up buying instead.” I was missing Traders Joes potstickers last night, Safeway brand does not stand up.
Thanks, Kirsten.
The guys over at Hot Knives, a super fabulous cooking blog, accidentally dumped a bag of peppercorns into flavored oil. They dried them out, put them back in a grinder, and voila, even better pepper. Then, being Hot Knives (frequent reviewers of yummy beers), they naturally thought, why not do that with booze?
Brilliant. In the same way that bacon fat can make anything yummier, alcohol can add bite. Here’s their recipe for adding hooch to pepper.
I’m going to try Aviation Gin (from my bday tour of House Spirits, pic below), then maybe get into things like Kahlua.
Image right: Flickr/peppered
I grew up in Telluride, Colorado, a remote little mountain town that alternates between being a stoner town (pop. 2,000) and a flashy ski resort that makes people’s eyes go starry. Above is the view from the house I grew up in. Imagine a woodpile across the bottom and some deer and that’s the view from my bedroom, too.
Oprah Winfrey used to have a house under lift 10 and I remember waving to her when she was on her porch. She waived back. One weekend I saw my snowboard instructor (ski P.E. was required for all students on Thursdays and Fridays during the season) giving a lesson and went over to say hi. He was teaching Mel Gibson, who chatted with me about the snow conditions. Tom Cruise has a house there and my sister sold Katie Holmes sunglasses. I came into the store looking for my sister, and I was totally oblivious to Katie and that little baby whats-its-face. It’s the kind of town where nobody cares if you’re famous, and everybody likes it that way.
One thing that is gushed about, though, is Honga’s Lotus Petal Restaurant. In high school my snowboarder friends and I used to go there and gorge on sushi, throw edamame at each other, and try to hustle mojitos. My very favorite entree was and is still the Honga’s Blackened Tofu, which comes out crispy and dark and unlike any tofu I’ve ever had. One day I tried to find the recipe, and lo, she has a cookbook, and lo, someone from the New York Social Diary (fitting, no?) put the recipe online. It’s at the bottom. Make it. (more…)
I’ve recently fallen in love with celeriac, or celery root. It looks like one of those horrible screaming roots from Harry Potter, but it tastes like summer. Paired with meat it’s a perfectly crisp, light flavor.
Matthew made this celeriac side dish for a dry aged steak, which is aged with mold. The guy at the meat counter clarified three times that there would be mold on the steak. But damn if it wasn’t the most delicious meat I’ve had in a long time.
A few nights ago I made celeriac apple soup from this recipe, but I added black forest ham bacon. Yum.
Here’s a picture of a celery root I stole from Wikipedia. Look for it at the store. All you have to do is slice off the yucky outer layer, then chop it and add it to anything.
I’ve been reading the book Knife Skills in the Kitchen, recommended by Plumpy, and it’s very cool. Knives are one of those things I use every darn day and could be much better with, but they’re easy to overlook unless you have some expensive or especially sharp ones.
One thing I didn’t learn from the book, though, is this fancy way to cut a pear.
Hold the pear in your palm longways, and make a shallow V-shaped cut at about 45 degrees on each side. The slice you remove will have a tear drop shape and a 90 degree angle on the cut side. (more…)
Wouldn’t it be nice to have something to blame for all your shortcomings, mishaps, and non-starts besides yourself? Something silly, so everyone knows you’re still taking some responsibility (some). But then whenever you drop something and break it, or miss the bus, or just fail, you can blame that inanimate object.
I shall blame bacon. Bacon gets off easy in every other way. So now I can go, damn you, bacon, for making me late to work. Bacon, it’s all your fault that it’s raining. I got drunk alone? It was all the bacon.
Although, yesterday I told Matthew that I would like to make a bacon apple pie I’d seen a recipe for. Hours later he said, Yeah, and we can make a bacon lattice across the top! Which is exactly what the recipe called for. I swooned a little. Here’s the recipe and pic, which I’ve stolen from Portland Food and Drink:
So there’s my weekend plans. Come over if you want some.
