I look for funny. Avoid the scary, sad, offensive and political…because that is how I like it.

Brian Williams Raps Baby Got Back. Jimmy Fallon? Genius.

Michael Ruhlman really WORKS a Farmers Market–you should work it, too.

This from my son (language ahead!-i). I always like to envision different GPS voices/attitudes. This one cracked me up.:

Opera at the grocery store? Okay:

My friend Jen Singer’s take on the great/bad of Summer Break.. From her post, among the things she loves/hates:

I love food and wine people. For the most part they are truly a great bunch to be around. Of course there are exceptions to every rule–how someone could be wined and dined on a press trip and still be a curmudgeon about it all, while enjoying the beauty of, for example, Nevis, is beyond me, but I’ve sat next to people like that.

But I will say it again. For the most part, food and wine people are my people. It may stem from dinners growing up in a mostly Italian family, noisy, argumentative, loving…did I mention noisy? And plenty of good food. We spent hours post-meal around the table every holiday, and I cherish those hours. To this day, a good meal ends the same way, dishes long cleared, coffee cups emptied, perhaps one more round of post-dinner drink poured. (Okay, these days, I’m more apt to suggest we move to the comfort of sofas, but only after at least an hour around the table!)

So it is with so much delight that I’ve found myself surrounded by some real foodie friends yet again in my new hometown. It all started when a few of us just wanted to get together to practice/learn French. Then a book club was suggested. Then the brilliance of an end-of-year book club meeting that focused on a food book and a cook book. (Thank you, Jill!) (For the record we read Blood, Bones and Butter by Gabrielle Hamilton and cooked from My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz.)

To me there is something so special about cooking for friends. Yesterday, my husband posed the question, “Would you rather entertain than be entertained?” and my answer was an immediate yes. For me, cooking/entertaining has always been about hospitality and surrounding myself with people I love, meeting new people I come to love.

He then asked me to rate entertaining vs. being entertained (it’s the way his mind works. We rank it all…) To me, the two are so close because I simply love both. I’m social that way. I think there is a far greater disparity, however, if someone prefers being entertained to DOING the entertaining. If you would rather be entertained, I’m guessing you probably want nothing or little to do with actually hosting an evening.

Either way, to me, an evening over dinner with friends is a special evening. Food is great, but loving friends is greater.

I’m lucky.

I sketched this on regular sketchbook paper. I will definitely tackle this again on watercolor paper.

Guest poster Pat got Monday’s spot, so I’m posting my onions today. Last week Jackie asked about how or why I got started painting…I love watercolors enough to want to be good at this particular thing. They really just capture beauty so well. I took lessons eons ago with a fabulous painter in Louisville, KY, Aline Barker. Fast forward to today, years later and a few painting classes in between, and I realize how fortunate I was to have had her as a teacher. I only regret not starting sooner and ever putting the brushes down (I didn’t paint once in Florida. I wasn’t happy there.)…It was one thing I wanted to get back to.

Almost a year ago, I turned to a painter friend and said, “I’m going to try to paint every day.” So I started. I’ve painted almost daily ever since. I blog it over at My Year Of Watercolor, where I let you know you’ll see the good AND the bad. It hasn’t been so very bad so often that I’ve been embarrassed, although there are a few entries where I cropped the entire painting down to one tiny area that I liked…and sometimes, that’s enough, to look at an entire painting and find one thing that I’m okay with.

Painting is so different from everything else. It’s challenging. It’s brought me into another world of people I never would have met otherwise. So I keep on going.

Twice in the past three weeks, we’ve had tea at home, with a lovely tiered tea plate (thank you, Kerrie!), plenty of tea, sandwiches, scones, clotted cream, champagne–the works. Both times we had cucumber sandwiches, but ya know what? Just not a fan of cucumbers unless their in a pickled salad…I love smoked salmon, but I think I was the only one…egg salad was a hit, of course. But the second time around, I created two sandwiches that were top of the list. Tomato Cheddar and Ham with Curried Honey Mustard. Both were simply put on thin white sandwich great and both were the first two sandwiches to go.

Here’s the thing: nothing says you can’t turn a tea sandwich into a regular sandwich, right? So here are two sandwiches to live on this summer:

Tomato Cheddar:

2 or 4 slices bread
About 4 ounces cheddar, grated
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 tomato, sliced

Pop bread into toaster. While bread toasts, mix cheddar with mayo and chili powder. Spread over 2 slices of bread, 4 if you want to stretch it even more and cut calories. Top with slice tomato. Serve open-faced and enjoy. (Or close the slices for sandwiches you can pack.)

Ham with Curried Honey Mayonnaise
4 slices bread
4 teaspoons mustard (I used my fave, brown deli mustard)
2 teaspoons honey
1 teaspoon curry powder
4 ounces thinly sliced ham

Pop bread into toaster. While bread toasts, mix mustard with honey and curry powder. Spread evenly on toast, top each piece of toast with 1 ounce sliced ham. Enjoy open faced, or close up for sandwiches to pack.

Pat was a neighbor of mine for far too short a time. We moved out, she moved out…but not away. Now I get to visit her in the gem of a house she and her husband found, mere minutes away from where we first met. I love getting together with her and I love that she has jumped into he blogathon.
She blogs at Pat Blumer: I really should be in church right now, where she makes me smile and makes me think. Go visit her there.

For today, I am lucky to have her as my guest poster. I give you Pat:

Pretty Food

I wrote this when Bryn was just 11, about to turn 12. She was already quite the chef and she still is. She even takes photos of her food before eating. You never know where you’ll find a masterpiece.
Her food always turns out well, and she’s learning the art of restraint and subtlety (we went through quite a phase of way too much garlic)….

But she wanted to make beignets after eating them at Moderne at MOMA in NYC. These are awesome…

Tuesday, February 5, 2008

Begin the Beignets

We are still talking about the beignets dessert we had at The Modern, the lovely restaurant run by Union Square Hospitality Group at MOMA in NYC. They were light, not greasy at all and delicious dipped into the caramel sauce or the fruit salsa (mango salsa, if I recall correctly) or the maple ice cream (I think that was it; I didn’t take notes) …trust me on that, I made sure they were delicious with ANY of the sides…

At any rate, Bryn has been talking about them ever since, so what else to do but make beignets and blog about it?

It isn’t that difficult–it’s a yeast dough. I gave it one rise in the bowl, turned it out, rolled it, then let it go for another rise. I used a pizza cutter to cut them into diamond shapes, then fried them, dusted them with sugar and enjoyed…I had some dulce de leche in the fridge, so I dipped them in that, but does it sound strange if I say the dulce de leche was too sweet? I don’t think real caramel sauce is so sweet. At any rate, I didn’t like it so much like that. Guess I am a purist when it comes to this–straight up with the dusting of sugar.

I didn’t have the needed evaporated milk called for in the recipe, so instead, I used a 4 oz. carton of vanilla yogurt. I thought it gave the beignets the subtlest hint of tang…Very nice.

We will not discuss here the near disaster we had the following day when Bryn wanted to surprise me by frying up the leftover dough–this recipe makes enough for a crowd, so I’d popped it into the fridge. But we are not discussing that here. Suffice it to say….

Bryn learned the following:

• Hot grease splatters.
• Hot grease smokes.
• Hot grease burns.
• Water does not cool off grease but makes it splatter some more.

I believe the following:

• Bryn is lucky only her fingers got some splatter burns.
• We are lucky the house didn’t burn down.

I KNOW this:

• Bryn is not allowed to turn on anything but the microwave and the kettle when no adults are around. Can you believe she decided to whip up beignets for kicks? Sheesh. The next Julia, right?

Barb and Bryn’s Beignets:
(Makes about 40 2-inch beignets)
2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeats
3/4 warm water
1/4 cup superfine sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg, lightly beaten
4 ounces vanilla yogurt
3 3/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons butter
Vegetable Oil for Frying
Powdered Sugar

1. Mix the yeast, water and sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer. Let sit until creamy (about 10 minutes). Add salt, egg, yogurt and mix with dough hook. Add 1 1/2 cups flour, mix, then add butter and mix until combined. Add remaining flour and mix until dough is just pulling away from the sides of the bowl. Drizzle with a tiny bit of oil, smooth oil over dough, cover with plastic wrap and leave in warm spot for about 1 hour, until doubled in size.

2. Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Pat into rectangle, dust top with flour then roll out to 1/2-inch thick rectangle. Measures about 15 inches long by about 10 inches wide. Cut into diamond shapes (cut straight across one side, then on the diagonal the other way). Cover in place with a clean dish cloth. Let rise another 40 to 60 minutes.

3. Heat about 2 inches oil to 350 degrees. Gently drop beignets into oil, one at a time. Don’t crowd oil or heat will lower. Turn after about 30 seconds. Fry until both sides are golden brown. Drain on paper towel. Cool slightly then dust with powdered sugar: Eat NOW.

Plus it is World Cup and I am tired of cooking. I need cold dishes stat:

Balsamic vinaigrette coleslaw: toss very thinly sliced cabbage with thinly sliced onion and some homemade balsamic vinaigrette and some celery salt. Let marinate and enjoy.

Caprese salad and all variations: fresh tomatoes mozzarella and basil. Same on a roll. Use pesto instead of basil. Try it on a pizza. Chop it up and toss in a bowl with lettuce.

Greek salad with plenty of oregano, feta and lemon and kalamata olives

Any salad, maybe with some sliced ripe strawberries.

Yogurt with homemade granola and frozen blueberries to cool me off.

Leftovers.

Cold plate of pate, cheese, olives, marinated roasted peppers and great bread.

What do you eat when it is hot out and World Cup is on?

I didn’t visit many sites this week. Too crazed. But yesterday’s post reminded me of this gen about whet it takes to develop a recipe:

I do very much the same as XX–I would add if a magazine comes after the fact (and payment agreement/contract) and wants recipes from sources, I say I will approach the sources, but that the pay doesn’t cover my reformatting or testing the recipes–that takes time. So if you think they will need it, ask about it and make sure you are compensated. Sources, chefs included, often have little written well or scaled to serve 6 people. You might be doing the scaling. 

I’ve also gotten permission to use both a recipe and photo from a cookbook publisher. That’s fine and great. I don’t test those and let the magazine know I’m not testing those–they get printed with full info, where they appeared, etc. 

When I develop a recipe, I write it first–like Bev, I will research things such as proportions for a sauce, best techniques, etc. I list ingredients in the order I touch them in the recipe. I work in the kitchen with paper and pen/pencil–my recipe has arrows moving ingredients around, adding salt here, deleting another ingredient there…things that just don’t work when I’m in front of a stove. 

I second the use of a spiral notebook. I recently lost a recipe I had written on a separate piece of paper–I had tested it and it had my notes on it. I did a quick recreation, but that was painful. 

Know the audience as best you can. They very well may not be eating truffles. Ever. So don’t write a recipe with truffles. Ever. 

If I can, I like to use weight vs. volume, but of course, I have to follow a recipe’s style. If you are writing a recipe, it is easy to follow a style–just read the recipes in the magazine you are writing for. Don’t use “Tbsp” for tablespoon if you see “tablespoon” written out. 

Pay attention to whether they number steps or bullet point them or write them as a paragraph. 
I time the recipe, but I also ADD time/round up to prep times when I am asked. I am very fast in the kitchen, and I know others are not. I never add time to cooking time–if it takes 15 minutes at 350F in my home, it ought to take 15 minutes in someone else’s 350F oven. 

I do a lot of meat recipes–they are hard to always make pretty (lots of brown)–I like to cook rare to medium rare to get some pink (one client gets food photography from me, too)–and garnishes MATTER. A lot. 

Speaking of seasonality and cranberries: I always buy extra cranberries for the freezer in November and December because someone always asks me to develop a cranberry recipe for them in …July. 

I try never to develop a fresh pumpkin recipe for someone in May. No, you cannot find sugar pumpkins or jack-o-lantern style pumpkins ANYWHERE in May. (You can often find other squash recipes, so I will develop squash recipes or canned pumpkin recipes)… 

When I proof, I look at ingredient list and tick it off as I read through the instructions and see it mentioned–it is really easy to skip something important (yesterday, I caught the sugar missing from a panna cotta recipe)… 

Test! 

Know your strengths, too–I know if I am developing a dessert recipe I will work harder than if I am developing anything else…If you fail once, hit the books looking for reasons before you test again–one recipe that comes to my mind is a lemon meringue pie that brought me to tears at a photo shoot! 

Pay attention to–and list–the little things–recently I asked did readers REALLY be need to told to slice a steak when they have cooked a 1-pound steak and later are directed to put 2 1/2 ounces of the steak onto a roll (building a steak sandwich)–I mean, how ELSE would one get there? Bev wisely talked me out of snark: Yes, Barb: they really need to be told to slice the steak. So I repeat: list the little things. Write them.

Oops. Let’s try this pizza crust again….

Some things you should know.

1. If I am developing beef recipes for a client in an ongoing manner (months)–it won’t matter if my family loves loves LOVES the recipe. They won’t see it again, because next month? Next month I have to develop five NEW beef recipes.

2. You might have to be a guinea pig if you come to dinner at my house. You can’t just say “this tastes good.” You will have to weigh in on salt, missing something ingredient questions and how to improve a dish. Don’t be shy.

3. Yes, I really do test every recipe.

4. Yes, dessert recipes are waaaaaaay more difficult for me than savory recipes. Lemon meringue pie at a photo shoot once reduced me to tears. But I learned some stuff.

5. Not every recipe is a winner, and my family DOES let me know.

6. Sometimes you will eat turkey and cranberry sauce in July in my house.

6a. I am the one buying 5 bags of cranberries for the freezer AFTER the holidays (see #6 above). I will need them in July.

7.  No matter how much you wish it, you cannot make a real pumpkin appear in July. I know this from experience too. However, a great photographer can make a fake pumpkin look close to real by  giving it some soft focus in the background.

8. Count on some superior editor will say how SHE would have photographed the pumpkin soup IN a pumpkin (pooh, so original). In July. Good luck with that one. SHE was not on the phone call with sources IN THE SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE who were willing to maybe ship a pumpkin (although not necessarily the jack-o-lantern style pumpkin you are expecting) for several hundreds of dollars (when your food budget was $100–for the entire shoot). If you’re curious, yes, this I also have lived through.

9. Yes, you CAN cook for me. I am not really a food snob–well, unless that means cooking me good food. And good food can, indeed, include a hot dog! Just make it a good hot dog on a good roll with good mustard.

10. Yes, sometimes I think Cheerios makes a great supper.

Breakfast is the most
important meal of the day.
Just give me coffee.