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...

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...

In the grand tradition of the haul videos on youtube , let me tell you what I got at the flea market yesterday. You remember when I went to the Brimfield Flea Market in July . Well, yesterday my coworkers and I went back. Check out what I got! This woman had a booth that was basically everything from my wedding - brooches, vintage hankies, gloves and awesome retro things. I saw this apron at that booth, and I had to get it. It is so awesome makes me think I should take an embroidery class at the Arts Center of the Capital Region since I always go so crazy for those types of items at flea markets. This awesome green kitchen stool was $20 from the 1920s. I figured I can peel potatoes, chop veggies, and hang out in the kitchen for hours all without my feet hurting. I'll probably touch up the paint, but I think it is adorable. I actually walked past it the first time and kept thinking about it (that is usually the sign you should head back and pick up the item). I got one ...

Today at lunch time I was lucky enough to see a talk given by Kathleen Merrigan entitled "Growing Communities through Local Foods" sponsored by the Williams College Center for Environmental Studies . Deputy secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the author of the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, Merrigan is widely regarded as the moving force behind the development of federal organic standards. She is an outspoken advocate of moving federal farm policies toward conservation and sustainable land use. After receiving a Fulbright fellowship to study pesticide use in Poland, Merrigan joined the staff of the U.S. Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee in 1987. She then earned her Ph.D. at MIT, where she also worked as a senior analyst for the Henry A. Wallace Institute for Alternative Agriculture. From there she was appointed to the National Organics Standards Board. In 1999, Bill Clinton appointed Merrigan to head the USDA’s Marketing S...

I went on a farm tour and did a guest post on From Scratch Club. Check it out!

 The crack staff at the Capital Region Dining Blog are big fans of The Hungry Fish , Chef Sarah Fish's locavore diner.   So we were pleased to see that they were moving to a slightly more convenient location (for us) in Troy.   We were able to visit this weekend, and can happily report that it's as good as ever.   The new room retains its offbeat charm, although the store portion is a little smaller.    The food remains both terrific and a good value.  I had the breakfast BLT: Very good homemade bread, high-quality bacon, fresh tomato, farm fresh egg -- how can you go wrong?   The home fries were very good too, with crisp exteriors. I'm not, in all candor, a big fan of the homemade ketchup -- it's better than most, but I'm more or less part of the foodie backlash that sees it as better in theory than in practice.  That quibble aside, it's a perfect brunch sandwich.  Ms. Garlic had the Croque Madame: ...

My coworkers and I are going to set up a booth and sell some crafts at the North Adams Fall Foliage Festival September 22. I'm hard at work on my projects. Check out what I have made so far!