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...