The Hidden Kitchen was magical. Here is super host (for whom I now have a little bit of a food crush) Dennis' recipe for Crema de Limoncello. Make sure to read the comments for instructions on how to make Limoncello as well, we tried some that had been aged for two years and diners commented that it tasted like drinking a flower.

Recipes for the weekend (which starts for me tonight!):

Vegetarian Borsch
Oatmeal, Chocolate Chip and Pecan Cookies

balance is good

Fall is here! It's raining and pouring today and we've had two successful baking experiments:

Whole wheat beer bread - this is yummy, but it does include about a cup of white flour. I wanted to try it out pretty much as written before experimenting with all whole wheat. I didn't have bread flour so I just used all purpose instead. This was my first time making bread with the mixer instead of kneading and mixing by hand. Shockingly, it was much easier.

Apple-Walnut Cake - for over a month I've been looking for my ideal apple cake recipe, a search I've restarted from last Fall. This isn't it because my ideal apple cake recipe is more of a biscuit type cake with struesel on top. I mainly used this particular recipe because it looked so easy and I'm getting tired of putting so much energy into not finding the right recipe. One of the reviewers mentioned that the base is basically a blondie dough and they're right, but with a ton of apples it turns extra moist and fantastic. So good! While this is not my ideal, it is awesome in a completely different way.

This is what the kitchen looked like earlier this afternoon as I waited for my sugar to caramelize to make this tart, a tryout for Thanksgiving.
It was very good but I drastically underestimated the amount of slivered almonds we had in the freezer. I subbed pistachios for most of the almonds and they were alright but the crisper almonds would've been a nicer texture with the soft caramel and cranberries.

I came home to the November Anthropologie catalog with these:




Both versions of an idea I've had on my mind for about a year now: make clothes with quilts. I think either a nice fitted jacket (maybe mandarin collar?) or comfy robe would be great candidates. For the jacket, obviously fit is a major concern, but for both the seam finishing would be crucial for a nice garment. Either a lining or maybe just trim the seam allowances and finish with binding or twill tape? Will have to think about it for next year.

I asked Joel how he answers the charge that because food like his is more expensive, it is inherently elitist. “I don’t accept the premise,” he replied. “First off, those weren’t any ‘elitists’ you met on the farm this morning. We sell to all kinds of people. Second, whenever I hear people say clean food is expensive, I tell them it’s actually the cheapest food you can buy. That always gets their attention. Then I explain that, with our food, all of the costs are figured into the price. Society is not bearing the cost of water pollution, of antibiotic resistance, of food-borne illnesses, of crop subsidies, of subsidized oil and water—of all the hidden costs to the environment and the taxpayer that make cheap food seem cheap. No thinking person will tell you they don’t care about all that. I tell them the choice is simple: You can buy honestly priced food or you can buy irresponsibly priced food.”

from Michael Pollan, of course

This weekend's menu (the first chance I've had to cook in over a month!):

mojitos
chocolate zucchini cupcakes, talk about delicious!
Zelda's Pizza
summer fruit from the farmer's market - peaches, heirloom melons
mushrooms over polenta, the mushroom part based on this method criminis work just fine

Hello! I am moving this weekend so I plan to have a little more to say in about a week. Since we are moving and incurring the attendant stress, cocktails have developed a position of extreme importance in my daily routine.

I finally came up with a very easy way to make mojitos. It takes some prep but then you can make mojitos any time in only a couple minutes. I'm sorry that we are moving now that I've developed my method since it works better if you have your own mint growing on the premises. Here are the prep steps:

1. Get a bunch of limes and juice them. We have a citrus juicer attachment for my mixer so whenever limes go on sale I buy like 30-50 of them and then freeze the juice in ice cube trays. I make Thaddy help with the juicing.

2. Make simple syrup. Just dissolve a cup of sugar in a cup of water and keep it in a pour container in the fridge. We use one of those bottles people keep for olive oil with the pour spout on top. This is actually super easy to do in the microwave but they never tell you that.

Then whenever we want to have mojitos I just mash up a couple of the lime ice cubes with the mint then add the simple syrup, rum, ice, and fill up with soda water. The lime juice does not freeze super solid so they are easy to mash up with a fork right out of the freezer.

Also, this makes it easy to make a bunch of mojitos for a party. Just put the lime, mint, syrup, and rum in a big pitcher in the same ratio that tastes good for one glass. Then people can fill up glasses with ice and use about half the mix with about half soda water.

Here is the ratio I use for one mojito: 1.5 lime cubes (this is variable because it depends on your ice cube try, mine makes smallish cubes), about 10 mint leaves, 1 oz. simple syrup, 1.5 oz rum (shot glass). Add ice and about an equal amount of club soda.

Happy mojito summer!

Along similar lines, check out this Basil Lemonade on Orangette.

Edited to add: since the move, I've been making this same cocktail with the lemon basil combination instead of lime and mint. It's also very delicious and just as refreshing. Lemons are easier to juice so this is easier to put together when you are exhausted from moving a bunch of boxes.

I love this system for organizing recipes in a moleskine, featured at Delicious Days. I'm a fan of the handwritten cookbook, but my current blank book is quickly getting difficult to search now that several pages have been completed. This way is still very personal but organized.

Did you know that Ann Patchett writes on the Gourmet blog? When worlds collide! If you haven't read every single one of her books, go to the library right now. I'll wait.

via Smitten Kitchen, my current food blog crush

I just got this book last night and boy is it beautiful. It's the most gorgeous book I've ever owned. In the Acknowledgements the author identifies the book's designer, Toni Tajima, especially. Now I know who I would ask for if I ever wrote a book. And of course I'd have to get Heidi Swanson to do the pictures, just beautiful.

I made Hamentaschen this weekend to use up a bunch of jam jars that had about half an inch each. The jam was definitely used up but I can't say that these cookies were a success. I am not jewish and I think the cookies knew. The corners acted very pinched together prior to baking but as soon as they got in the oven they turned into the flat cookies you see here. They still tasted pretty good.

p.s. I got a tripod over the weekend and am using it non-stop, low light is no longer an obstacle.

p.p.s. The February crafty roundup has been delayed, but I can reveal that I am satisfied with my output in February.

This is Snuggles helping me craft. He loves to hang around when I am sewing and I really enjoy his company.

Well, it's not like we've been doing nothing. There has been progress made and fun had in a sort of slow, Februaryish way.

This is a little bit that will be part of a baby quilt by the end of the weekend. Number 2 in a series of at least 4 baby quilts I will be making this year. Let me know if you are pregnant and I will put you on the list! This is certainly the year of the baby in my circle.

I made granola using Little Birds' easy and customizable recipe. Yum. I used maple syrup, unrefined coconut oil, almonds and walnuts this time. Next time I have a peanuty version in mind. Also, I cut down both the sugar and fat by about a quarter/third without any ill effects (though I'm sure it's better with more!).

This is the Ice Queen's Palace, built by Thadeus when we were in Tahoe last weekend. I can't wait to have babies with this man. Did I say that out loud?

And last, but not least, the skirt. In-progress shot number one thousand.

I made this Chocolate Caramel Cheesecake for a treat for Thaddy on Valentine's Day. We haven't eaten it yet, but I did break my normal rule of no excessive bowl licking, the batter was that good.

This is not the clearest picture in the world, but I wanted to show you the squashes I roasted for soup yesterday since I don't know what kind they are. I can't say the results were better than my standby butternut treatment but it is even healthier and I was getting really sick of that other one. This time I roasted the girls like normal (for an hour in a 400 oven with a little butter to caramelize like Alton Brown says), then I drowned the innards in a bunch of homemade chicken stock, tons of dried thyme (thanks Grandma!), and the juice of one lemon to brighten up the squash, plus salt and pepper. Once that was heated through I pureed it then tossed in a half cup of quinoa for protein and so it will stick to my tummy for lunches. I can't say this is the best soup I've ever made but it is quick, easy, nutritious, and actually really good at work the next day.

This is what my guest room/craft studio bed looks like right now. Many in-process crafts have exploded all over it. I anticipate many finished object in the next two weeks. In the meantime Thaddy and I are off to Mendocino for a romantic interlude enjoying the midweek, off season deals they have on right now. While I'm gone you should try out these two recipes both of which were resounding successes:

1. Brownie Points' homemade marshmallows, amaze your friends!
2. Smitten Kitchen's blondies, I added the jack daniels and some ghirardelli white chocolate chunks.

Weekend recap:

1. Started a scarf using this pattern in Manos del Uruguay yarn in a beautiful purple shade. I would like to make the pattern in a variegated colorway also, but none of them out right now thrill me. The variegation really makes the pattern stand out beautifully.

2. Made my first loaf of whole wheat bread using the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, a christmas gift from my mother-in-law. It turned out pretty good, which is saying a lot since:
a)it was my first try at whole wheat bread baking,
b)my first homemade loaf of bread that turned out remotely edible, and
c)I forgot to add the yeast! I kneaded it into the dough after I had already formed it with all of the other ingredients.

3. Cut out pieces to make myself a new purse and I even attached interfacing to the applicable parts. Should be able to finish construction this week.

4. Made world peace cookies. These were good but I think I'll keep looking for my personal perfect chocolate cookie recipe. Looking at the blog picture again though makes me think I may have over cooked mine. Also had a lot of trouble with the slice and bake aspect, they crumbled soo much for me. I got Alice Medrich's chocolate cookbook from my sister for my birthday a couple of years ago, I need to try her cookies out.

5. Watched Nanny McPhee which I really enjoyed. The set and costume design are gorgeous with vibrant fairy tale colors, not to mention Colin Firth alert!

I had the kind of weekend where I guess I learned a lot but I did not emerge with a feeling of completion. Here's what I learned:

1. Wool felt appliques wash nicely when attached to cotton knit fabric.

2. Three is too many lemons when making Le Poulet de Muriel, they will impart a little bitterness to the drippings (aka the best part). Next time control yourself and stick with one or two lemons at most.

3. Low water dying methods provide extremely hippyfied results. If the results you want are only slightly hippyfied, you should try a different technique.

4. Anything not cotton will not take cotton dye. This includes zippers that will always remain bright white.



5. Some lounging after periods of intense activity can feel fantastic. If you continue to lounge beyond the recuperation stage, you can start to feel lazy and lethargic.

6. This yummy looking caramel cake is not for me. Two tries now following the meticulous directions meticulously and I am nowhere near the glorious crumb you see in the picture if you follow the link. I would suspect my baking powder but it's only a month or two old. Everything was room temperature! Bah!

7. Kitties are the best part of most weekends.

Things that feel good:

petting kitties
a nice hot fire on your back
making quilts
butternut squash soup (yum, we've already had it three times)
flannel sheets with hot water bottle
a long weekend
dreaming about christmas trees
drinking eggnog
considering making your own christmas trees

On the weekend I made Alicia's Sourcream Apple Pie, the second apple pie I wanted to test for Thanksgiving. It was ridiculously well recieved and most of book club had seconds so it was a definite success. The other pie that I tried was also very good and probably my favorite of the two: Molly's tarte tatin. It was well liked by the people at work. The problem is that only two of us, me and Thad, actually tried both pies. I liked the tarte tatin better and Thad preferred the Sourcream version. Oh what a tangled web we weave.

article about e.coli and industrial meat by Michael Pollan
Wendell Berry once wrote that when we took animals off farms and put them onto feedlots, we had, in effect, taken an old solution — the one where crops feed animals and animals’ waste feeds crops — and neatly divided it into two new problems: a fertility problem on the farm, and a pollution problem on the feedlot. Rather than return to that elegant solution, however, industrial agriculture came up with a technological fix for the first problem — chemical fertilizers on the farm. As yet, there is no good fix for the second problem, unless you count irradiation and Haccp plans and overcooking your burgers and, now, staying away from spinach. All of these solutions treat E. coli 0157:H7 as an unavoidable fact of life rather than what it is: a fact of industrial agriculture.