Thanks to flt we now have pictures of two of LLT's latest ventures.

First, the Beauty - in cooperation with the talented feymaker, we have the Soltie from mysticsablewolf's Tournament of Love and Beauty Feast:

For this, LLT did the shell with help from feymaker, but the Venus herself was all feymaker's work. The picture comes from her display at KA&SF this weekend. We haven't seen pictures from the Tournament of Love and Beauty feast yet, but feymaker added fruit and rose petals much the way mysticsablewolf described them displaying it at the feast.


Next, the cool - This is part of LLT's KA&SF entry.

( LLT's documentation of the pig is under the cut )

Crossposted to food_porn.

D'oh! Event info would be nice...Storvik Novice Tourney, Washington DC area, July 8th (or whatever that Sat is).

Comments anyone?

( Staff )
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( tenative feast menu )

Menu is about 85% certain. We will be trying each dish individually so there may be some adjusting as we taste different things. At some point (prob mid March) there will also be a "test feast" of all dishes for one table of eight to see if any fine tuning needs to be done as far as combined tastes and amount of food.

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( documentation )

From the USA Today: Julie masters the art of Julia's Cooking.

( Text of article behind cut )

I don't remember how I found the Julie/Julia project blog in the first place, but I was a faithful reader. I was very sad when the year ended and I could no longer look forward to stories of Julie trying to create some insane feast while trying to keep up with the latest Buffy episode.

I knew she was writing a book, and I have kept my eyes open for it. Hopefully at some point I'll be able to get hold of a copy.

The Saturday before last LLT and I went to the Depot to get dishware for the Barony. We had lots of fun grabbing the pieces that she had worked out would fit within the budget we were given. As was our custom, we got some things we wanted for the house while we were there. We were walking through the frozen section and I noticed a woman getting a case of oxtails to make pho with. That put me in the mind for Pho but I didn't really think too much of it.

Since I'm currently out of work, I've been doing all the grocery shopping for the house. At some point during the next week I was over in Virginia and ended up searching out the International grocery store that LLT had found online. I had a list of things that I was supposed to look for but ended up calling both LLT and Frederich several times to ask questions. At one point I said to Frederich "I'm going to get you guys for this" and he was surprised. I explained that I was having problems finding things because I didn't know what I was actually looking for and couldn't really communicate with the mainly Spanish speaking staff. He said that I should look upon the shopping trip as an adventure, and more and more that's what I started doing. I figured whatever I ended up bringing home between the two of them they'd figure out something to do with it.

At one point I wandered into a section of the store and found fresh rice noodles. That put me in mind of pho again and I decided to do some experimentation of my own. I got Ox tails and thinly sliced eye of round steak as well as the rice noodles and a box that claimed to be spices for chinese soup. I finally made it home and we unpacked everything for the night. So a couple of days later I got up and got the ox bones out of the freezer. I ran out to do some errands and when I got home I started making the stock. By dinner time the stock had only cooked for a couple of hours so we decided to put that meal off until the next day. While I was cooking, however my eldest niece, Muchkin, called and asked if I was going to be busy that night. She had been wanting me to take her to get acrylic nails. She had been told that I couldn't afford to pay for her nails, but since she had just gotten paid, she wanted me to actually give her a ride. So LLT and I drove to beautiful downtown Waldorf to take her to the nail place.

LLT needed to get a nail fixed and I ended up getting a pedicure. I thought about colors and decided that I can't really afford to have weird colors on my fingers for a while but there is no reason that I couldn't have funky colors on my toes. So my nails are now a bright navy blue. They look good but LLT and I both decided we weren't really happy with the salon, which we had only chosen since it was RIGHT next to Munch's workplace. We'll have to try other places in the future. Of course Munch knows she's not to expect us to drive her to get her nails done every two weeks.

The next night was Pho night. I was really pleased with the way it had turned out and even more so when Frederich said that it ranked right up there with some of the best Pho he'd ever had in a resturant. I've been told by both of them that I am encouraged to make more whenever I feel like it.

This was really cool since Frederich is such an awesome cook that I often feel intimidated. I don't rush to cook since anything I would make he makes better. Even if he doesn't feel like cooking I defer to LLT since she is also the better cook. I'm okay with baking but even there Frederich far outshines me. Cooking comes so easily for both of them that I pretty much don't even try very often. My old problems with self confidence I guess. I'm always worried that my cooking won't be up to their standards. So when they rave about something I've made it feels extra special. Of course I really hope they like Pho because I can eat it once a week or more if given the chance. Not that I'm up to cooking it that often but I am certainly willing to make it whenever I have the time.

So update on the Knedliky recipe. I'm seriously wanting to find out who to write a complaint to at the Post Express. I went to Sutton Place, Harris Teeter and Trader Joes. The consensus is that (surprise!) plums, especially Italian ones are out of season. The produce guy at H.T. recommended using cherries instead so I got some of those, and then I managed to find some huge Californian plums at TJ's. I figure I can quarter them and try them.

Also, while reading the recipe I found that it calls for 4 ounces fromage blanc. For those who are wondering formage blanc litterally translates to "white cheese." I was unable to find anything so labeled in any of the stores I went to. I decided to come back here and do some research.


While I was researching my options on the web I found another copy of the recipe here. Turns out it is from an AP article so it looks like it's all over the place. That doesn't solve the problems with the recipe. On reading the article I found this:
Sweet knedliky won me over immediately. The dough can be made with semolina flour as well as with cottage cheese, quark (a slightly tangy curd cheese) or cooked potatoes.

In my favorite version, whole fruits, particularly small oval plums or sour cherries, are wrapped inside quark-based dough and then boiled. For cooks in the United States, mascarpone or fromage blanc are good substitutes for the quark. Browned butter and cinnamon-scented powdered sugar then are spooned over the hot dumplings.

I found a listing for Quark here saying that I should look at Look for it in large health food stores, specialty stores, and markets.

I found a listing on the Vermont Butter & Cheese Company which really doesn't give me much hope. Then I found a recipe on The Food Network website to Formage Blanc.

( Homemade Fromage Blanc )

This sounds like far too big a project for this weekend.

devilvern and flt have a friend who writes a fun blog called wperoundup. Basically he reviews the Washington Post Express, which is a mini version of the Washington Post. I'm still not clear why the people who make the Post produce this paper except as a teaser to the bigger version, but apparently it is available for free at local metro stations.

Anyway, I like this guys blog and yesterday he mentioned in one of his snippets that there was a recipe that he really liked in the WPE. I'm always a sucker for a new recipe so I decided to go looking. Now I COULD have walked over to the metro station accross the street from my office to get a copy, but why do that when there's a computer in front of me? It turns out you can download a copy of the WPE in pdf form. So I did...except first I had to update my copy of Adobe Reader because for some reason the page wouldn't open. Then I had to download again.

I decided the recipe sounded interesting enough to try it so went to print a copy. Except that for some reason this file is set up so I can't print it, can't cut or copy and paste, can't do anything but copy the recipe by hand. This is VERY frustrating. Since I type FAR better than I write (yes I am a product of generation X) I decided to post the recipe here. I'm beginning to think it would have been easier to walk over to the metro station!

I have to wonder at the reasoning for this. I tried searching for the recipe on the regular Post page, which I know I can save, print and copy from, but no luck. The way they have this set up I can't print a copy of the paper to read away from the computer and since I automatically skip over the ads on a computer I wonder that they see any advantage to making it so restrictive.

( Read more... )

Today at lunch I finished Wife of the Chef by Courtney Febbroriello. Lately I’ve been really interested in reading books about the behind the scenes life of a restaurant. Actually, much like books about figure skating, I’m just interested in books about people cooking. Give me a movie or a book that has a figure skater or cook as one of the main characters and I’m happy, even if it sucks.

This book I wasn’t really thrilled about. I liked the stories of the restaurant, but I disliked the attitude of the author. Yes I understand that because she is the wife of the chef she is under appreciated for the many things she does. Yes, I understand that without her there would be no restaurant because there would be no bills paid, no menus typed, no loans taken and no administrative things done. I acknowledge (without knowing either person in the relationship or even having heard of the couple before the book) that she probably does the lion’s share of the grunt work in the family. However my general response is “guess what, life isn’t fair”. If you wanted all the applause your husband gets for cooking then you picked the wrong life. EVERYONE has a talent but some are flashier than others. Frankly, part of the reason people don’t acknowledge the grunt work is they are capable of doing it and in their lives they probably are the ones doing the grunt work too. I read a review by a woman who also married a chef who put it well: I know he can do all the things I do, but I couldn’t make an egg roll to save my life.

Also the author doesn’t seem to have a great respect for her audience. She refers disdainfully to people who wish they could cook professionally or think that the job is “cool”. Yes not all of us understand what hard work it is to work in the food industry but she needs to think of her audience in this book. It really is off putting to hear her scornful views of the public. It was so disturbing that when I was reading a section of it to Tirzah while we were cooking FL’s cake she ended up asking me to stop. There were interesting things, which caught her attention at first, which is why I was reading it to her at all, but the attitude that Febbroriello has for people who she says has “chef envy” ruined the book for her.

I will quote my favorite part of the book though. This is the section I was reading to Tirzah that she enjoyed and it really is a great story:

Most aquariums are filled with thousands of children milling about while frantic partents attempt to keep track of them in the darkened room. There are two types of children. The first group (“Seen one fish, you’ve seen ‘em all”) runs from one viewing glass to the next. They push their way up to the front, peer for a second or two, then move to the next. The second group of children are completely captivated by watching one fish for hours. They wipe their grubby, dool-covered hands (who says I shouldn’t have children?) on the glass in an effort to get the fish’s attention. They smile, point, and laugh as the fish completes endless doughnuts in the tank.Chris [her husband] falls somewhere between the two. He’ll run to the glass of the tank, push the children to the side, quickly identify the fish as a wild striped bass, and explain how it should be prepared. Just when the parents are about to turn their heads in disbelief, he runs to the next tank.

“Gross. Sea urchins. I had them once in a sorbet, and it was so disgusting. I don’t think that I’ll ever eat them again. Look over there. Skate wing! They’re excellent sautéed with leeks.”

He’s easily turned off by the species that can’t be eaten, so we finish with our seafood lesion in one third the amount of time that the average family takes. I used to enjoy the peaceful, meditative quality of aquariums. I could stare for hours without banging on the glass or drooling at the dreamlike creatures floating in the clear water. Now I just wonders which plants and animals in the tank can be eaten and at what price. The worst is endangered sea life. This is where Chris becomes like the drooling child. He caresses the tank window and sighs, “Swordfish, so sweet. You can’t buy them anymore; they were overfished. Maybe in a few more years.”

Now Tirzah and I want to do this. Sometime this summer maybe. On a Saturday at the Baltimore Aquarium. Who says we don't like to freak the mundanes?

BTW, on a completely unrelated note, I am in the process of updating the cakeporn site with my write-up of FL’s cake. Stay tuned for the next week or so as it gets updated whenever I get a chance.

Yay! I just finished catching up on the Julie/Julia Project. Julie, an insane lady in New York, challenged herself to do all of the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking in one year. I found her blog a few weeks ago and whenever I need a break at work I've been trying to get up to date with her posts.

Also, I just managed to win a copy of Mastering the Art of French Cooking on ebay for 5.99. Not bad for both volumes.