Flavors 518

The best food adventures are ones in which your navigation devices do nothing for you. When I went to the Bears' Steakhouse for my birthday a couple years ago, you knew it was going to be good because the GPS, the iphone, and the Onstar were all wrong. The universe was making us work really hard for our pile of meat, and it tasted all the better because of it. When I first saw Berle Farm yogurt at the Honest Weight Co-op , I was surprised to see there was something from Hoosick I hadn't heard of since I've now worked out there for 7 months. My coworker and I decided it was a good lunch time activity to go show up over there and buy some yogurt. We phoned the exceedingly sweet lady for directions, got incredibly lost on unmarked beautiful country roads (GPS and smartphone acting useless), and were promptly greeted by the laziest of golden retrievers. We put our $6 in the cash can, and took with us the smoothest, tastiest of yogurts. Its not sweet (although you could a...

Years ago I wrote a post about breakfast . What I think is funny is my tone that I actually knew anything (calling it a guide, for example) and then not really seeming to like any of the options I could think of except for carbs. What I also think is funny is that I was mentioning the very recipe I just sat down to type out right now because I was telling my mom about it on the phone today. If you are still thinking about a recipe three years later, you were pretty much meant to make it. I still agree with that first paragraph in that post about not really knowing what to eat for breakfast. But I have also tried a few new approaches lately that I can elaborate on. For a long time I was going with the idea that protein for breakfast would make me feel full longer than carbs would. I got really into cooking hard boiled eggs and tried many different recipes to find the perfect way of doing it. The best way of doing it turned out to be Jacques Pepin's, and here it is: "Put the...

We didn't travel anywhere for the holidays this year, and so far it has been really relaxing. I was wondering why people make the holidays into such a crazy thing, but then I thought of my favorite holiday things in the past. In 1990, my grandmother gave me a dollhouse she had made that had real electricity, actual newspapers and magazines, bacon and eggs cooking on the stove and a whole family complete with a dog and a pet turtle. It was awesome, and I am sure it was probably stressful for her to make that whole thing herself in addition to all that she did for all the other people in her life. The fact that I remember this fabulous dollhouse and that Christmas in general 22 years later must point to the fact that it is all worth the stress - at least maybe for relatives of small children. But for me now, let's hear it for the least stressful holidays ever. Brought to you by: French press coffee (so, so delicious). I got the Bodum 8 cup Brazil French Press for Chris...

I've long wanted to have a fancy brunch party. We've got a lot of cookbooks, and I read about things that sounds fabulous and laborious like stratas, frittatas, and quiches. Are you really going to wake up on the weekend and start rolling out a pie crust? No, no you are not. I have made in the past mushroom ricotta crepes , cinnamon buns with buttermilk icing , and the first thing I ever cooked on my own from scratch was a goat cheese and leek quiche . Well, we all know the best thing to motivate you to cook fancy things is to invite other people over, and what is more fun than a fancy brunch? Here's someone who likes the idea as much as I do . Martha Stewart also has some ideas , and I love them all. My friend Katie and her boyfriend came over, and I set up a spread of things that could easily be made ahead of time. I don't think having people over for brunch would work as well if you were off flipping pancakes and folding omelets while your friend is talking abou...

I always thought Mcgriddles at McDonald's sounded totally disgusting - sort of like Paula Deen's Krispy Kreme sandwiches . But today we stopped in at McDonald's for breakfast, and Scott got one. I was very skeptical at first, and I found the first bite interesting. I took another bite, and then I realized something - it isn't supposed to be like a weird mix of sweet and savory, it is supposed to be like a portable version of pancakes that is not as messy and does not take as much time to eat. Actually it wasn't half bad - certainly not the most disgusting thing in the world. Who knew?

My friend Elizabeth said twice on Sunday "if you want to be a food blogger then you have to try Jake Moon at least once." It is a ways out from Albany on the way to Thatcher Park. It is a "destination eatery in the Heldebergs" according to their website. For me, this past weekend was really feeling like the end of summer. We were going to head back out to the Finger Lakes for a special event at the vineyard where we joined the wine club in July (it is Damiani and their reds are fabulous), but thunderstorm warnings caused us to change our plans. I started to realize that my wanting to go back to the Finger Lakes was me wanting to revisit summer vacation just a bit more, and with bad weather it wouldn't have been the same at all. So we stayed back, and when we picked up my friend Elizabeth and her fellow for brunch she was dressed like summer was already over (very sharp looking in tights and boots). I, on the other hand, kept the last pretend bit of summe...

As part of Tuesdays with Dorie , using the book Baking with Julia I made the pecan sticky buns. My husband is allergic to nuts, and I was either going to leave off the pecans, replace them with sunflower seeds or just skip this one, but he suggested I go make them at someone else's house. It is quite an intimidating recipe. Check out some chatter about it here . You can read the recipe on Eat Drink Man Woman Dogs Cat and Cookies on Friday I started the brioche the night before. I thought it would be most powerful to use the dough attachment on my food processor, but by putting the ingredients in before the dough blade, some brioche dough got between the bowl and the blade causing my usually all powerful food processor to stop and overheat. I had to finish up the beating of the dough with my hand mixer. After I overheated half the appliances in my house, I couldn't believe how beautiful this dough was looking. I woke up at 6 am and completed the assembling and rolli...

We have talked about New World Bistro on this blog before, once last year , and when I got them to cater lunch in the bridal suite before our wedding. Well, today we decided to go to the movies to see Damsels in Distress because it is ending on Tuesday. We went back and forth about whether to make egg sandwiches or go out for brunch like it was a normal Sunday. We decided to go out, and when we showed up at New World and saw the buffet, we immediately said to each other - "Ah! It is Mother's Day!" My mom lives in Michigan and my Mother in Law lives in western Canada, a situation like Daniel describes . We did purchase them both cards but failed to send them in time. I definitely notice when Valentine's Day comes around, but last year I didn't notice Father's Day so much that I planned my wedding on that day. What can you do? Anyways, so obviously there were no tables, but we were able to sit and eat at the bar. They had a buffet for $25 a person, and basic...

Now I have talked before about not having good breakfast ideas (I'll still maintain that cold pizza is the king of breakfasts), and the slightly depressing thing we all do which is eat lunch at our desks . I quickly learned at my first Archives internship working at the show Democracy Now! how prohibitively expensive it was to go out to Quizno's for a sandwich everyday. You really want something cheap, healthy, and tasty that won't make a mess. Now some of you out there may offer up a sandwich, but a whole slew of not very exciting elementary school sandwiches with soggy bread ruined that option for me. Let's revisit breakfast first. I listened to an interview with the woman who runs Tastespotting on Homefries.com, and I got really into Tastespotting this weekend. It is so much better than Pinterest because it is carefully curated. Tastespotting can give you some great ideas. Have you ever thought of eating a breakfast salad? Have you thought about eating quinoa...

Today we went to Hattie's Restaurant in Saratoga. Scott wanted to buy some music, I like PaperDolls , and we both enjoy the Saratoga Salsa and Spice Company (and Marie Sharp's hot sauce they sell there). So first of all, this place is adorable. They have roosters everywhere, including on a large shelf across the top of the walls. I took a picture. My grandmother was not from Lousiana, (she was from Detroit), but she definitely had a very similar aesthetic including the red check tablecloths and roosters everywhere. I don't mean to brag, but my grandmother had a lot more roosters than they do. I, too, have adopted the rooster interest, but I like to think of it as "French Country". I couldn't find a picture of her roosters or red checked tablecloths, but the wallpaper here, the curtains, and her awesome lipstick can give you an idea (also you can tell how much fun it was being around her by the look on my face). Anyways - on to the chicken. It w...

I'm quickly developing a huge girl-crush on Joy the Baker , and I think if you make her recipes you will too. From her new cookbook , I made her cinnamon rolls with buttermilk icing for my husband's birthday weekend. All I can say is wow. I could tell these were going to be amazing from very early on in the recipe. The dough was very similar in technique and ingredients to the Dorie Greenspan white loaves recipe . Check them out: And then layer after layer of flaky goodness: Then there were presents, including a cookbook he was browsing at our friend's house last weekend . Let it be known these cinnamon rolls are very, very special.

As part of Tuesdays with Dorie using the book Baking with Julia by Dorie Greenspan , I made the white loaves recipe. You can check out the recipe here . I enjoyed this recipe and was able to use some of my dough agitation techniques I learned from my King Arthur Flour pizza making class . Dealing with the sticky dough made me appreciate the bench scraper we had at the class ( like this one ), and I headed out to Different Drummer's Kitchen afterwards to pick up one for future bread making projects. I love my Roll'pat for projects like this, as it helps to keep the counter clean, and it is really quick and easy to rinse off afterward. First I gathered up the dough by mixing together warm water and yeast and then adding flour, sugar, and salt. You beat in some butter, and then put it in a bowl to rise. After an hour (ah - breadlove!): Then take that out and divide it in two on the counter. Then we are patting them out, rolling them up, and sealing the seam...

The winter holidays obviously can cause a whole range of emotions in people - they are weighed down with memories of past Christmases, especially if people or things are now gone. Also, places that mean one thing on other days of the year can have other connotations on Christmas. They are weighed down with expectations, pressures, and comparisons. The sentence "But its Christmas!" seems so much of a stronger thing to say than "But it is President's Day!" It seems a bit like weddings - what other thing has such strong expectations attached to it because it happens to be a certain day on the calender? That being said, most other Christmas breaks I have had I have traveled farther than this year. The college where I work does a campus shut down during this week to save money with energy costs. It is the sort of thing where you don't want to know what day it is, because you don't want to know how fast it is going by ( like our honeymoon ). It makes me thin...