Flavors 518

I've wanted to make Thomas Keller's oreo recipe for a long while now, ever since I read the recipe back in 2010 on Tracey's Culinary Adventures blog . Yesterday my friend Jessica and I were at J & A's Prep Kitchen talking about what to make for the From Scratch Club food swap ( derryX went there last year ). I was like "Bagels? Pasta? Hmmm..." We talked about low fat foods while eating fattening appetizers, and I said I thought about making oreos one day. Her reaction was like "Ohhhh.." and that made me think it was a good idea to just go ahead and make them. High brow/low brow, fancy from scratch junk food - best of all worlds. First, I chopped up the butter. I got this awesome knife when my coworker went to Alaska as thanks for dogsitting. It is an ulu knife . People in the arctic in the past used it for everything including cutting hair. It is a really nice knife and perfect for cubing up butter. Then you combine all the dry ingredien...

Tonight I went to the From Scratch Club food swap in Schenectady. I hardly ever go out that way, so it was fun to have a reason to go. I brought the mosaic frames I made on July 4th , vanilla extract, and quinoa and kidney bean veggie burgers . My friend Jessica showed up since she works out there, so that made it even more fun! I always liked this Woody Allen quote, though I realize now I have all along been taking it to mean the opposite of what he meant. About winning awards: "I cannot abide by the judgment of other people, because if you accept it when they say you deserve an award, then you have to accept it when they say you don't.'' -- Woody Allen, shrugging off Sleeper's lack of Oscar nominations, 1974. People were crazy for my lavender lemonade , way crazier than I could have predicted. Sometimes they want things more than you expect, and sometimes less. People went crazy for the frames last time, so crazy they were asking for my non-existent crafting...

Today I want to the food swap with the From Scratch Club in Troy. It was on Saturday instead of Sunday to be part of Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution Day . I juiced 31 lemons to make 6 bottles of lavender lemonade. Check out the recipe on Joy the Baker . Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of my bottles of lemonade or my piles of lemons I juiced, but I can say the very cool bottles I got were from Christmas Tree Shops ($1.99). The recipe is incredibly delicious. I juiced about 18 more lemons for my sample jug. I had extra from that batch and sat around drinking that, watching not very good movies ( One Day and half of Horrible Bosses ), and watching my coworkers Cheasapeake Retrievers last night. It was pure heaven. Without bragging too much, this item was ridiculously, almost overwhelmingly, popular. Other ideas I had for this time were: fresh pasta , oyster crackers, BBQ sauce, and ice cream. But once I read the lavender lemonade recipe on Joy the Baker a couple weeks ago,...

Today I went to the food swap with the From Scratch Club . It was extra fun because author Alana Chernila was there and spoke about her book The Homemade Pantry . She spoke about the connection between politics and food, and it was very interesting. My friend Jessica came along with her fabulous lip balm made from Lloyd Spear Honey , so that made it even more fun. I made hot sauce from an Emeril's recipe I found online . It was green though, like the green jalapenos I used. I bought the jars and labels at Brooklyn Kitchen when I went down to see Joy the Baker . Check it out: I brought the chips for sampling. People apparently thought it was super spicy, including Albany Jane who totally turned me down for that reason. Check out what I got this time! Garlic croutons, which was the item I wanted the most during the sampling period - totally delicious! Beef jerky ( here is the beef jerky maker's blog ). I also got a beautiful lavender body powder that you can use...

Today I went to the food swap with the From Scratch Club over in Troy. I would say that maybe I got a little more used to things, and that for me it went a little smoother than last time . This time I decided to make doughnuts. Here they are all packaged up and ready to go. These doughnuts were a bit of an epic experience for me. I went through a lot of ideas for what to make for the food swap. I think it was down to bagels, doughnuts, cake pops, and onion potato chips. I think for next time I will make hot sauce. Anyways, I thought it would be fun to do a couple different kinds of doughnuts. This was fun because I got to compare some recipes. First I made Joy the Baker's chocolate doughnuts . These were a bit like biscuits and easy and quick to make. Then, I made doughnuts with vanilla glaze in the new Pioneer Woman cookbook . These were very epic. Actually the dough reminded me of Joy the Baker's cinnamon rolls and Dorie Greenspan's white loaves . I could tell...

Today I went to a food swap in Troy. I am sure from my own experience organizing a cookie exchange that getting that all organized is not as easy as it looks. I got a New York state cookie cutter at The Hungry Fish Cafe this weekend and decided to make a speculoo cookie recipe from Around My French Table by Dorie Greenspa n . Check out what I made, and I'll mention what I got for it! Check out the packaging I made and the signs for my table display: There were over 40 people there at the Oakwood Community Center in Troy. It was super fun. You can't believe the creativity and skill people show in what they come up with to make. I did notice that the people who made alcoholic things were most popular. It seems like if you made infused vodka you get to choose between all the canned tomatoes. Also, I could not have expected that there would be so many vegans! It was weird that it kind of felt like speed dating or a high school popularity contest. The girl w...