new favorite candy

I had a candy graving the other night, and living next to a CVS, I can get my fix. So walking down the candy aisle, I found Hershey's ode to their competitor's M&Ms, their new "Pieces" line. Yes, Reese's Pieces have been around for years, but they've combined our favorite Hershey's candies into bite-size, candied-shelled delights! I picked up the Hershey's Special Dark Pieces - SO GOOD and much better than the dark chocolate M&M's.  Go out and pick these up! Hershey's also has York Pieces and Almond Joy Pieces.

How to kill your lunch??

The Huffington Posts has a video series (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/daniel-klein/how-to-kill-your-lunch_b_849501.html) exploring the life of smaller farmers.  In particular, the video series examines the sustaining food movement, and in essences, how farmers only butcher the animals that they need for food.

It got me thinking that not only farmers grow and kill their own food.  Growing up in my Italian-American family, though by trade we did not have any “farmers,” we definitely had our backyard garden (today, which is barricaded by twine and cinderblocks to impede any invading predators- ground hogs!)  and seasonal animal to be slaughtered.  During the Easter season, my uncle would have a lamb waiting for slaughter in his backyard.  As children, we’d watch and pet the lamb, not realizing that it would soon be on our dinner table. Today, we often purchase lamb from a local farmer. Another memory is that at times, we would have rabbits boxed up in our backyard, only to be stewed for dinner a few nights later.  A more common hunting-for-food meal is deer.  My uncle would often go hunting and come home with several deer, all which hung in his garage, waiting to be butchered and served.  

These are a few memories, I had from when I was a child.  It’s so easy to think that meat comes from a supermarket, but to remember it is a luxury we all have today, when not too long ago or even in different parts of the world, people still need to survive by killing for lunch.

Alessi: Ethical and Radical

A few weeks ago, I went to the PMA to see the Alessi exhibit: Ethical and Radical.  Alessi is a family-own company known for unique household appliances, which their design has said to  “blurs the boundaries between industry and art.” 

The exhibit showed a progression and style of the company’s work.  Mostly serving trays and coffee servers, the work was presented as if it were in the kitchen area of a department store, but untouchable.  A lot of the pieces are actually purchasable (not at the gift store), but in the way they were displayed, you would not have guessed it! 

Even the idea of taking photos felt weird of these everyday objects but are they “everyday” objects? Would you serve coffee out of these?

Or would you have fruit in this bowl?

Though some pieces seem impractical, the detail in the design is what makes these objects "art," and these peaces are beautiful. 

French Fries!!

French Fries are an amazing snack food– I don’t know anyone who doesn’t like a good French Fry.  My favorite fries are pomme frites - just the double-fried, crispy goodness everything a potato has to offer, you can find in an order of Belgium fries.  One of my first foodie tours was to the Pomme Frites: Authentic Belgium Fries in the East Village, http://www.pommesfrites.ws/ . This was an awaking experience to how good French Fries could be.  You can have them served with traditional frites sauce, which is a mayo-ketchup mix or on their menu, you can try anything from peanut satay sauce to rosemary-garlic mayo.

When thinking about this post, I questioned, “How many types of fries are out there??” This is my list so far: steak fries, curly fries, shoestring fries, waffle fries, butterfly fries, crinkle fries, fast food fries – I feel the character Bubba in Forrest Gump, but you get the picture; there are a lot of fries out there! I’m excluding on how you can order fries, because a quick Google search has shown me that I’ve been missing out! Have you heard of Patatje Oorlog? Check out this site to see that there’s more than disco fries and cheese fries: http://finefries.com/types-of-french-fries.html .

Because I don’t have fryer, I tend to usually order fries when I go out, but a good alternative I’ve found is to julienne either russet or sweet potatoes, and coat them with some olive oil, and bake on high heat in the oven.  They come out super crispy, and to serve, I coat my non-fried fries with some coarse salt and cayenne pepper.  They’ve been given the “Brian Stamp of Approval,” so any palette would enjoy these “fries.”  

lighter than air, soufflé!

The soufflé.  In Chapter 10 of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, the Great Julia Child wrote that the soufflé is “the epitome and triumph of the art of French cookery, a glorious and exciting finish to a great meal.” (p.613).  I’d have to agree.  Soufflés sucrés – sweet soufflés- are my favorite dessert, preferably chocolate.  Whenever on a menu, no doubt, that will be my dessert.  I always thought about making them at home, but with the preface that Mrs. Child gave, I felt that this was a daunting task. 

Over Valentine’s Day this year, I decided, “Yes, I’ll make soufflé!” I got courage to prepare a recipe I found in the February issue of Bon Appétit magazine.

I cut the recipe in half, but it’s called Bittersweet Cocoa Soufflés with Orange Blossom Cream

½ cup plus 3 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp flour

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 plus 1 tbsp milk

¼ cup natural unsweeten cocoa powder

1 large egg yolk

½ tsp vanilla extract

2 large egg whites

1/16 tsp cream of Tartar

1.5 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped finely

Orange Blossom Cream

½ cup chilled whipping cream

¾ tbsp sugar

½ tsp grated orange peel

The recipe was quite easy, considering I had been so afraid to even think about making this dessert, but it does take some time.  First, butter 4 ramekins and dust them with sugar, coating to the edge.  This helps the soufflé rise.

Whisk sugar, flour, salt with some of the milk in a saucepan to form a paste; basically, you are preparing a sweet béchamel sauce. Once it bubbles, add and whisk the remaining milk.  Stir over low heat until it bubbles again and it thickens (about 4 mins). Transfer to a large bowl and add cocoa, egg yolks, and vanilla and stirl til smooth. 

With an electric mixer, beat egg whites with cream of tartar until soft peaks form.  Fold egg whites into mixture.

Divide batter in ramekins, and let chill (can be stored overnight, which I did).

To make the orange whip cream, whip heavy cream, sugar, and orange peel until heavy peaks form and store until survey.

When you are ready to bake your soufflés, preheat your oven to 375°F.  Bake until puffy for 15 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Voilà! Soufflé!

For my first soufflés, I think they came out pretty good, and they tasted amazing! If you’re afraid they’re not going to rise, just relax! And if they become too light, follow the advice from the Swedish Chef!

http://youtu.be/Zmr4dKlXR_o

Cleaning out my closet (and fridge!)

My recent goal is to get rid of (eat) all the pasta I have stored in my pantry (closet).  Whenever I visit home, my mom sends me back to Philly with at least one box of pasta, and I’ve finally had to say, “Enough!” 

You can see it’s exploding out the door.  I really don’t prepare pasta as much as I’d like.  Not that it’s difficult to make, but I never really think of cooking pasta, and then surprise, a billion boxes that never leave the pantry. 

A quick dish I made for myself is pasta with roasted vegetables.  On Thursday, I roasted 1 eggplant, 1 ½ cups of cherry tomatoes, and two handfuls of string beans diced with some olive oil (to coat the pan) and 2 garlic cloves for a side dish.  Because I knew I wouldn’t have time to prep the food over the weekend, and I didn’t want the veggies to spoil, I cooked them and stored them away. Now Monday, my side dish has become part of my main dish for tonight’s dinner plans.

I really like spaghetti, but for a long time I never knew how much to make for myself or even for two.  I heard on TV that the diameter a quarter is a good indicator of how much pasta to make for one serving size, and since then, it has been so much easier.  I boiled pasta until it was al dente (check your box for approximate times) and heated up my veggies.  I took out the pasta and sauted it with the vegetables, so the pasta could pick up the flavors.   Last, grated some Parmigiano-Reggiano, and there’s dinner for one!