Food & Thoughts

Today is Dining with the Bloggers day. Today is Wednesday, also - so who better to cook with than The Wednesday Chef ? Luisa started her blog just a couple of months ago. She had this great idea of wanting to tell people how the recipes in the papers REALLY come out - when do they suck and when do they shine? Where do you have to watch your steps, and when is it as easy as pie? I don't get the newspapers she does, but I know exactly what it's like not having anyone to ask about a certain recipe - and I know about having too many clippings laying around too - so I love this approach to food blogging. She's focusing on LA and NY Times, but dashes of to other recipes every now and again. Some I'd love to try would be Regan Daley's Poached Quinces or Marcella Hassan's Sicilian Pesto - or, turning back to LA times, the I-can-almost-smell-it-from-here Garlicky Braised Cauliflower with Capers - this I GOTTA try! This time though, because lately ALL of my DwB posts h...

I am no art connoisseur. I wouldn't be able to tell my Gauguin from my van Gogh, or my Picasso from my Miró. Okay, maybe Picasso. People that can spend hour after hour in a museum, walking up and down aisles, standing still in front of a painting for ages, slightly tilting their head to get the best lighting on the object in front of them amaze me. How do they do it? How do they keep seeing new things, new angles, new colors and brush strokes? And why oh why wont it jump out at me? Is it a patience thing? Or is it maybe just because my family, or someone else for that matter, never taught me? Is it something you have to learn, or is it naturally there? I don't know, but whatever it is, it's not something I posses. Or maybe... maybe I'm just not looking at it the right way. I know a couple of chefs. A couple of them are women, but let's admit, most of them are men, at least in my neck of the woods. They're craftsmen, but some might call them artists. They have bi...

Short and sweet is this week's Dining with the Bloggers - just as sweet as the featured blog, Bunny Pie . Kept by Debbie from Chicago, boasting pictures that are out of this world - and of course - recipes, of which she has yet to post one I don't want to try. And then she writes great sentences, like "don't fear the sticky dough" and "when you bite into a bittersweet chocolate chunk, it is like a slap on the butt (the sexy kind)" - heh!;-) Actually, her latest post, on Alsatian Potato Pie was what had me drooling this week, but time is precious these days, and lo and behold, of course there was a recipe to fit my tight schedule (but I actually think the potato pie isn't too time consuming...) Apple scones . I've become a sucker for scones, and Debbie's are nice, moist, and reminds me of apple pie. Mmm, apple pie. Halved the recipe, worked great, and as I'm the kind of girl that always does as she's told, I had it with a cup of earl ...

Sometimes, I don't feel like sharing my food. I mean, I'm all for unpretentious serving on big platters and putting pots straight on the table, here, serve yourselves. But. Sometimes, I want something that's mine, and noone elses. My bowl, my plate, my jar - Mine, and mine alone. Maybe it's all those years in the restaurant business. Maybe it's seeing all of those individually plated dishes going out from the kitchen, and explaining every little detail on the plate to customer after customer. Maybe I like it when there's attention to detail. Or maybe, just maybe - I just like a little showing off. I have a lot of glasses. Lots . In all sorts af shapes and sizes and designs. And they're not your regular drinking glasses. Well, some of them are, but that's not what they're used for - drinking. I use mine for serving - for entertaining. For making sure that every person, at least at some point in the meal have something that is his or hers - and ONLY hi...

For the last couple of weeks, I've been bombarded with cupcakes. No, not like that, silly - I wasn't covered in them, they were just all over Santos' blog . New color, new style - cupcakes, cupcakes, CUPCAKES! I was going MAD! I needed cupcakes, and I needed cupcakes NOW! Dining with the Bloggers? Dining with a cupcake! But. I've already dined with Santos. Luckily, in one of her posts , Santos linked to a Cupcake-themed blog, Cupcake Bakery , written by Chockylit. If you check out Chockylit's other site , you'll find that her real name is Cheryl, and that she actually sells the delicacies she bakes - but on her blog, you'll get absolutely GORGEOUS looking cupcakes, complete with recipes. There are all sorts of interesting flavor combinations and, for lack of a better word, "themed" cupcakes. Churros and Chocolate Cupcake anyone ? Thai Ice Tea Cupcake ? Or do you just want plain and decadent Melt in your mouth Chocolate Cupcakes with Whipped Cream ?...

One treat leads to another - I just HAD to do one more thing with yeast for Dining with the Bloggers this week! Who would become my victim? There are so many accomplished bakers out there, that really, it's only a matter of picking one. But if you find someone who does MAGNIFICENT cakes and muffins and cupcakes in just the category you like (that would be homey and comfy and lovely looking!) which is also the category in which you would like to classify your own baking - you just KNOW you found the right person and the right blog. That is: Lori from dessertfirst . Lori is a food writer from Manila, Philipines. Not just a food-blogger, but a food writer. Scared yet? No, and really, you shouldn't be. Not even though she just ran her first 10 kilometer run. I mean, she's human - she bakes! And each and every one of her homebaked entries I could just lick off the screen. Seriously. Lori has a seperate page on her blog for recipes, and a word of warning: if you're just remot...

Surely, there is no stopping me this week! It's Dining with the Blogger's time and for once: I've planned ahead. Usually, I'm running around on Tuesday night (admittedly, sometimes on Wednesday mornings) trying to figure out which one of the oh-so-many bookmarked food blogger recipes I'm to try. This week though - no problemo. Last Wednesday, Fanny from Food Beam had this wonderfully looking picture (complete with recipe) up of a Pissaladiere . Um, and a-whatta? Pissaladiere. Go see Fanny's post, she'll tell you where it comes from. I never had it before, but it looked so good, and it had been a while since I'd done anything with yeast. I just couldn't get it of my mind. Sweet onions, savory anchovies, salty olives, doughy cushions of bread? Hello! If that doesn't speak heaven to you, well... But when would I have the time to make it? It turned out I unexpectedly got Friday night off. And is there a better way to spend Friday night than with dou...

This morning sucked. They're changing the water heater in our building, so from 8.30 am this morning until Thursday around noon, we'll have no hot water. I therefore had to get up at 8 am to take a shower, even though I didn't have to go to school until 4 hours later. I like sleeping. I don't like getting up at 8 o'clock unless there's something more important than a shower for me to get up for. But heck, then I was awake. What better to spend the time doing than check out what my industrious friends, the food bloggers, had all been up to? And behold: as you all know, there has just been a weekend chock-full of events: both SHF and IMBB! I participated in SHF, but had to see IMBB#20 run by me - I mean, there's only so much food I can eat in one weekend, and with birthday parties to attend to and work to be done, there was no fallen blogs for me. Or so I thought. Turned out, Kitchen Chick allowed anyone that could sneak an entry in before she had done the la...

Shhh. Don't tell anyone. I'm gonna let you in on a secret. You know when I bake something with chocolate in it, I usually excuse myself with something like: "I substituted the dark chocolate for milk chocolate, because that's how Martin wants his cakes/cookies/desserts"? It's not entirely true. I mean, it is sort of true - that is how Martin wants it. But, admittedly - it's probably also how I like it best. Just throw your chocolate wrappers at me - I like my chocolate creamy, sweet and vanilla-y, without the hint of bitterness I sometimes find in the dark variety. And I have tried the more expensive ones, the cheap ones, the in between ones. Really, I've tried. It's chocolate after all, how come I can't turn around and like it?? Then again. That's also only partly the truth. You see, I tend to fare better if the dark chocolate has been melted, and then incorporated into the sweet. And, as I'm slowly getting older, there are certain ite...

Sorry for the delay - as Cathy was kind enough to explain, the internet connection is back, but the stove was temporarily out of order. But here it is, Dining with the Bloggers! I hope you're not all thinking that the only time I eat (or in this case, drink) at the moment is when I have to do something for Dining with the Bloggers. But I guess I can understand why you'd think so - as it turns out, my only posts within the last two weeks has been DwB entries. It's sorta like homework, only the good kind of homework (if there is such a thing?) and I like how I can, for a couple of hours (okay, in some cases more like half an hour!) forget about painting walls, washing floors and wiggly doorknobs, an just concentrate on the food. It's getting more and more chilly outside as the days pass, and I was in the mood for something warm and comforting. And, I just organized all of my spices, so spicy and warm was to be keywords for the entry this week. That's when I remembered...

We-hey! An internet connection! Not my own, but that doesn't matter - it's fit for doing this weeks version of Dining with the Bloggers and that's what matters. Coming to you straight from the brand new kitchen is my version of a recipe found at Anne's Food , written by fellow Scandinavian blogger, Anne. She writes her blog from Sweden, to be more exact from Stockholm, and tells us that she's completely obsessed with food and cooking. And also adds in her "about" text that she's a wee bit obsessed about cats. And who wouldn't be if they had cats as gorgeous as hers ?? I actually first met Anne at Nigella's Kitchen - an awesome on-line forum for Nigella-fans, and just, you know, food fans in general. I might be wrong, but I could be lead to believe that one of Anne's other obsessions (just like it is mine) is baking and cakes. Especially out of Nigella's books (just like me - again). She also does plenty of savory dishes I'd...

Lyrics adapted from Lionel Richie's: Hello Hello! Is it DwB you're looking for? I know I should have done the post I know I should have blogged right here But my house is full of boxes And my head is spinning 'round Because there's just so much to do And I just can't do it all But I want to tell you so much I miss you! Sorry 'bout that weird little intro - just felt like I had to make some sort of effort after having neglected everyone and everything around the Food Blogging World for more than a week. And you know, this is the sort of stuff you'll come up with when your head's been in and out of moving boxes and you're sniffing cleaning products for a couple of hours a day. Just imagine what will happen when we start painting, LOL! Anyways, things are good, apart from the missing internet connection - the new place is amazing, it's huge and bright and we're loving it! Even the little guy took the move pretty well - he got his very own baske...

As I told you just yesterday, I'm moving. Which means, and I guess that's just the way these things go, that all - or at least, a lot - of my kitchen gadgets and crockery is all put away in big, brown moving boxes. They don't like being down there, but I've told them it's only for a short while, so so far they've stayed. Anyhow, that did kind of limit my choices for todays Dining with the Bloggers. Anything using a blender? No. Semi-large pot? No, only have a small one. Oven? Yes, oven I can do, even though we're bringing it. It's still plugged in. But cake tin, muffin cups, loaf pan? Nu-uh. So I checked my list of bookmarked recipes. And found Mock Deepfried Chickpeas from At Our Table. It's been around , and it's gotten rave reviews! In fact, it was one of the recipes Cathy featured on her first ever Dining with the Bloggers . You haven't tried it yet? What are you waiting for?? Linda's blog was one of the first food blogs I got to k...

(I hope it's okay I borrow your blog-name Cathy - I couldn't come up with a better title!) I think I mentioned a while back that I had this series of pictures from my kitchen, already uploaded and ready for a post. Well, now it's about time I use them, because this Saturday, October 1st. - we're moving! Which naturally implies getting a new kitchen - not much larger, but new it will be. And you know what? I'm getting just a tiny bit nostalgic about it. So it's small. But I always knew exactly where everything was. Flour? Reach up, it's in that big jar on the top shelf over the counter. Extra salt? Well, do you need Maldon or regular? And how much? There are small jars on the small shelf over the stove - extra Maldon over the sink, regular in the cupboard over the counter next to the sink. Big knife, small knife? Choose. Cake tins and loaf pans? Cupboard down on your left. We never installed a real garbage bin. We never got those higher counter tops. The exh...

I love my Dad. I know, every little girl (and the not-so-small ones, too) love their Dads. But my Dad is special. I think I've mentioned before that I've never lived with my Dad. My Mom and him split up shortly after I was born. When I was little, I always hoped that they'd one day get back together - I imagine all children of split-up'ped parents do that? - but on the other hand, I think I knew, deep down inside, that the arrangement was probably better for everyone like this. Because, you see, this way, there was never any anger. They were never mad at each other, there was never any arguing, never any shouting. Not that I knew of anyways. They stayed friends, and to this day, have a profound respect for each other. While I grew up, my Christmas Eve's were always spend with the two of them together. Me, my Dad, my older sister, her Dad - and then the rest of the bunch. The rest of the bunch - well, some years that consisted of my Mom's best friend and her fami...

Do you know how to make broccoli look good? Molly from Spice Tart does! Broccoli's not the only vegetable she makes look good - in fact, she's not even the only one in her family that can make vegetables look good. Her sister has done these wonderful paintings that are up at Molly's site, you have to have a look at those - the first one I saw ( the onion ) I actually thought was a macro'ed out close-up of an actual onion. Nah, it's paint! When we started doing Dining with the Bloggers last season, I went around a lot of the blogs, perusing their indexes and archives, to see if there was anything I'd like to try. Nowadays, Ialso get inspiration from my BlogLine Feed, and I'm telling you, the list is growing like a baby on steroids! This was also how I spotted Molly's recipe for making the easiest, yet tastiest broccoli . I eat way too little vegetables - I pride myself on being oh so healthy (to make up for all those cakes, you know?) but when pus...

Do you have a pan especially for making custard? I do! Sort of, anyways. I mean, I can cook other things in it, I'm sure - - but it's PERFECT for custards. Which is one of the reasons why I was thrilled, when Elise of Simply Recipes announced this months SHF-theme: Cooking up Custard . How can one not adore that velvety smooth, sweet and lovely scented creamy dessert? I for one love it! Which brings me to a little ah-em. I'm not sure what I made would fit the classic category of custard. I mean, sure, it's got egg yolks, sugar, milk and cream - but it's also got corn starch. Actually, I'm pretty sure what I made would be classified as a creme patisserie. But heck - In Elise's mind, custard had something to do with egg yolks, sugar and milk/cream - she even said using custard powder was okay, so what harm might a little corn starch do??;-) Otherwise, I have a couple other suggestions for custardy desserts you can have a look here and here . On to the projec...

I've been wanting to try a recipe from Niki's in quite a while. She keeps up her fantastic blog, Esurientes - The Comfort Zone - from (from me) far, far away Melbourne, Australia. Only problem - if you can call it that - was that a lot of the recipes I've bookmarked from her site turned out to be cakes . Now how could that have happened? ;-) It's probably all natural - Niki's a great baker, and her tastes in cakes correspond very well with mine! And did you know she has an entire index page exclusively with CHOCOLATE recipes?? The problem was (or is) - and you might think it silly - that I need to make more everyday recipes. It's seldom a problem for me to figure out what I want to bake, but ask me what I'm making for dinner tomorrow night and I'm sure all you'll get from me is a face looking like a question mark! No problemo though, 'cause there was plenty of bookmarks for savory dishes too, one of those being something she just made r...

Is it just me or does that look like a cannabis leaf to you too??;-)

That's right, Cathy and I are back with tried and tasted recipes from our favorite source: YOU BLOGGERS YOU! I can't believe (again, I think I've mentioned this before) the amount of new blogs that just springs up all over - it's amazing, and I love it! One of the not-so-new-anymore blogs, that I bookmarked the first time I had seen it, Taste Everything Once , is coming to us from Spokane. It's written by Jennifer, who I just recently realized has a knack for Norwegian language and an opinion on croutons with which I wholeheartedly agree! As if that's not enough, she's got projects going on: one trying to tell us all about the restaurant scene in Spokane , the other one introducing us to coffee place after coffee place . She's got the cutest dog , and oh yes - she makes gorgeous food ! That's still not it. She's also got the best recipe for pizza dough I have yet to come across. It's easy to prepare, you can freeze any you don't use ...

Couple of weeks ago, I made these - I think, personally - very scrumptious-looking muffins. Loads of almonds, milk chocolate chips and Daim chocolate. TONS I tell you! 56 kr. worth! (about $9!) So how come the result just wasn't good ?? I mean they were okay, but they weren't as delish as the ingredients promised. Too much of a good thing, you say? Really? I don't buy it, I'm sorry I just don't. People, we're talking CHOCOLATE here! Maybe it was the shortening? I've never used shortening in my muffins before, I never have it at home, so I just substitute with (more) butter. Maybe I overworked the batter? Maybe... I can't say. They were a bit on the dry side, a bit crumbly. Maybe it was because I accidently started the oven out a little too cold, so I had to bake them for longer? Anyhoo - there is one thing I was very pleased with about these muffin. The packaging. I can never seem to find paper cases that fit my muffin cups - they're either too smal...

No, the picture has absolutely nothing to do with what's in this post - but it was such a pretty picture I had to use it somewhere , didn't I? AY-AY-AY! I seem to be making promises I can't keep! I promised I'd return , then left you for a WHOLE WEEK, without a word of notice! Promises, promises, promises - which will, eventually, just as sun comes after rain, night after day, be followed by excuses, excuses, excuses. No changing the ways of the world this time either: Seems I sometime, about two weeks ago, caught a bugger of a throat virus that I'm still struggling with. The bastard makes my entire throat swell, my voice going weirdo and makes eating - not a pleasure. Kinda the worst part about it, not being able to eat! Drink cold, don't lie down, eat cold - ARGH! I want warm tea! The mere thought of eating (or drinking for that matter) has put me quite cold over the last couple of days - hence the absence. Anyways - enough of the apologies! I've promised ...

Let's start with the appropriate apology for the slightly fuzzy picture - but I just couldn't bear not entering this month's IMBB?, hosted by Linda from At Our Table , so I used an old picture. Eh, the picture can be old, as long as what it shows is good, no? The theme is " Summer's Flying, Let's Get Frying! ". I'd initially planned to make My Stepdad's Beignets - but SOMEONE decided school had to start tomorrow, so there was all of a sudden things I had to take care of, instead of enjoying myself in front of the deep fat fryer. But bite-sized, homemade spring rolls - who could say no? And I haven't really coaxed that recipe from him... yet... but I will, and then you shall know all about 'em! I love me a nice springroll. Crispy, preferably made with some sort of pork, but I'd never be shy of a veggie one either. These was made with minced pork, fried with chili, garlic, onion, soy sauce, fish sauce and a bit of sugar to taste. Again, w...