Posted by Andrew Wagner | November 6, 2009, 5:24 pm | Permalink
On Wednesday evening the New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies in the World Series (boo!). On Thursday I went to the City of Brotherly Love to visit with stained glass artist Judith Schaechter (below, Monument).
The city was quiet and morose in a way that I’ve only experienced one other time in San Francisco—the night the Giants fell to the Angels in the 2002 World Series. But Judith Schaechter is not one to let a baseball game bring her down and she greeted me at her door with all the good humor and joyful snark anyone who knows her might expect. [Read more →]
Posted by Amy Palanjian | November 6, 2009, 3:57 pm | Permalink
I know I promised this yesterday, but better late than never, right? Here’s the super simple (and tasty sounding) onion soup recipe from Ginnette Mathiot’s I Know How to Cook.
Onion Soup
Soupe á L’Oignon ou Potage Parisien
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 20 minutes
Serves 6
4 tbsp butter
9 oz onions, finely chopped
½ c flour
6 1/3 c any stock, hot
Salt and pepper
6 slices bread or 1 ¾ oz vermicelli
1.) Melt the butter in a large pan. Add the onions and cook over low heat, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes until golden brown.
2.) Sprinkle with the flour and cook, stirring constantly, for a few minutes until browned. Pour in the stock and simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
3.) Place the bread, if using, in a tureen, then strain the soup to remove the onion and pour it over the bread. Alternately, return the strained soup to the pan, add the vermicelli and cook briefly until the pasta is tender.
Posted by Alexa Fornoff | November 6, 2009, 2:56 pm | Permalink
I’m just going to say it: this bacon is really cute. Sarah Illenberger took to the scissors to make a recipe for chili con carne, and I think it looks positively delicious.
(via Fly)
Posted by Katherine Sharpe | November 6, 2009, 10:22 am | Permalink
Autumn is a good season for cooking, and also for getting organized, which makes this $10 pot rack project (the original maker said that it actually cost her a little less) perfectly suited to these November weekends.
The step-by-step instructional, which can be found at the original post, calls for rebar as the main material of the rack. Lifehacker notes that copper pipe, albeit more expensive, might look more at home in a traditional kitchen. I’d add another possible material — black pipe — which looked oh so right as the supporting material in these desks that Mike Perry and his studio-mates designed for themselves over the summer.
[from Lifehacker, via Wise Bread]
Posted by Katherine Sharpe | November 6, 2009, 8:22 am | Permalink
Not everything on Dollar Store Hack is a gem, but a lot of it is fun and/or funny.
Above: Pistols blazing!
The site seems to be the record of a class taught by Michael A. Salter at the University of Oregon last year. It has a manifesto that reads like this:
In an effort to investigate design and push creative methodologies we hacked existing dollar store items, designing, sketching and building a variety of personal and home goods. All our materials were acquired at the dollar store. Our goal was simple; design by hacking cheaply made plastic junk, and hopefully, manipulating some irony and employing some criticality in an otherwise humorless and often anonymous world of product.
Irony and criticality were in many cases achieved; however, it’s interesting that goods designed with junk tend, much of the time, to look like junk themselves. I don’t blame the designers. I think I blame the preponderance of junk.
Posted by Alexa Fornoff | November 5, 2009, 3:13 pm | Permalink
Kathryn Kenworth and Sasha Petrenko of San Francisco think that we are spending beyond our means and our current currency system is severely lacking. They believe now, more than ever, is the time to discover a more personal avenue for exchange: and the answer is Non*Mart.
Opening on November 6, the two month experiment bases its commerce on trade, stripping back flashy packaging, advertising, and marketing. The idea is to get both buyers and sellers interested in trading for their respective wares: art, designs, clothing, services, etc.
Kathryn says: We believe that it is time for Non*Mart. We are spending beyond our means to keep up with the lure of consumerism, meanwhile, the economy is in crisis and the planet is slowly becoming littered with junk. As artists and creative people, it is time to intervene, now is the time to make community, now is the time to turn the junk we’re inheriting into something beautiful, useful, new.
On Friday night from 6-8 pm, join the ladies for a book swap, fashion exchange, and logo removal service along with ever-popular drinks and snacks, and experience the new alternative to bill-swapping.
Posted by Amy Palanjian | November 5, 2009, 2:00 pm | Permalink
Lest you think I’m a greedy local foodie, let me explain. When I first moved to Des Moines, I tried to join Blue Gate Farm’s CSA. They were full, as it was late May, so I joined Grinnell Heritage Farm, which, as I’ve told you repeatedly, is pretty amazing. I continued my food friendship with GHF by signing up for a winter share, which has four pickups between now and Christmas. Then a few weeks ago the Blue Gate folks, who I’ve become friendly with through visits at the farmers market, sent me an email letting me know that since I had been on their waiting list and a spot had opened up, I could join their winter CSA. Well, I certainly don’t need two enormous quantities of vegetables, but I do need cheese, eggs and honey which they offer as optional add-ons. So I now have a special membership with them as well. Here’s what I got this week:
Blue Gate share:
1 bottle wildflower honey
a dozen beautiful eggs that I can’t wait to eat since theirs are some of the best I’ve ever had
a chunk of robiola
a container of roasted red pepper chevre from Reicherts Dairy Air (they are neighbors I believe).
Grinnell share:
4 lbs russet potatoes
3-4 lbs bolero carrots (which are super sweet and insanely addictive as far as carrots go)
3-4 lbs red ace beets
2 rutabagas
1 daikon radish (which I promptly sent home with my boyfriend as radishes and I don’t get along)
1 bunch spinach
1 bag loose leaf lettuce
1 bulb German extra hardy garlic
1 enormous head of cabbage
1 bunch collards
2 kabocha squash
6 red onions
1 romanesco cauliflower
I know what you’re thinking: how will one girl ever eat that many potatoes? I surely won’t, but luckily for me, my parents are coming to town for the weekend, so they will be helping me out. I’ll be eating my way through the rest of the produce for the next two weeks, and I’l let you know if I make anything particularly tasty. (Last night I made a vegetable soup, but it was a tad bland, so I’m going to pick up some pesto to eat with the leftovers.)
P.S The red pepper goat cheese was so good that I had to eat it all in two days.
Posted by Amy Palanjian | November 5, 2009, 10:30 am | Permalink
This post could also be called “Food Blog I am Currently Obsessed With” because I am just that with Seven Spoons. After reading one post I felt like I found a new friend in Tara because she gives a bit of context to her recipe posts so I know where she’s coming from. Plus, she’s just a great writer and storyteller. And her photography and styling are spot on. Here’s more from Tara about the blog:
Why hello. It’s nice to meet you. My name is Tara, I live in southern Ontario, Canada, and I am the one behind seven spoons. I started this site in May 2005 – my, that’s a while ago. It was intended as my recipe file, to keep track of things as I built a life with my boyfriend. Here is the beginning. In the years since, my boyfriend has become my husband, we moved from our first apartment to our first house, welcomed our first son, moved to our second house and welcomed our second son. Through it all seven spoons has become more than just about recipes, but also an account of sorts, a collection of thoughts and family and food.
Added to my recipe files: Fig and Walnut Bread with Thyme, Chocolate-chunk Oatmeal Cookies with Pecans and Dried Cherries, and Sweet Potato Gnocchi with Brussel Sprouts and Walnuts.
Posted by Amy Palanjian | November 5, 2009, 9:33 am | Permalink
I was listening to Morning Edition on NPR over the weekend when I heard Clotilde Dusoulier talking about I Know How to Cook, by Ginette Mathiot (here’s the link to her segment, “Oui Oui, French cooking Made Easy”. She worked with a team of translators and copy editors to bring the classic French book to the American public (with over 1400 recipes). I’m a big fan of her blog, Chocolate & Zucchini, so the first thing I did on Monday morning when I got to work was to look through the copy that I had on my desk (one of the perks of being a food editor!). Here’s more about the book from the publisher:
The bible of French home cooking, Je Sais Cuisiner, has sold over 6 million copies since it was first published in 1932. It is a household must-have, and a well-thumbed copy can be found in kitchens throughout France. Its author, Ginette Mathiot, published more than 30 recipe books in her lifetime, and this is her magnum opus. It’s now available for the first time in English as I Know How to Cook. With more than 1,400 easy-to-follow recipes for every occasion, it is an authoritative compendium of every classic French dish, from croque monsieur to cassoulet.
It’s fascinating to see the range of recipes, many of which are unfamiliar to me, but this rice pudding with apples jumped out immediately. I can’t wait to give this a try.
Poached Apples with Rice Pudding
Pommes Au Riz
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
Serves 6
Scant ¾ cup short grain rice
Generous 2 c milk
½ vanilla bean, split
Scant 2/3 c sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ½ tbsp butter
6 sweet apples, evenly sized
1.) Make a rice pudding: Bring the milk to a boil in a pan with the vanilla bean, then add the rice. Cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes, or until tender. Remove from the heat, discard the vanilla bean and gently mix in the sugar with a fork.
2.) Grease an ovenproof dish with the butter, and spoon the pudding into it.
3.) Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Peel and core the apples without damaging the flesh. Put the apples in a non-reactive pan with 1 cup water and ¼ cup of the sugar. Cover and cook over low heat for 10-15 minutes.
4.) When the apples are tender, but not falling apart, remove them from the syrup, arrange on the rice pudding, and sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Bake for 15-20 minutes, until browned.
I’m going to try to post the onion soup recipe from the book this afternoon, so make sure to check back!
Posted by Alexa Fornoff | November 4, 2009, 3:02 pm | Permalink
A Des Moines native, Sarah Johnson started her reconstructed vintage clothing line five years ago in Los Angeles before heading back to Iowa earlier this year. Rock N Reconstruct features one of a kind modifications, and she’s even turned out bikinis in addition to dresses and tops (okay, so it’s not exactly bikini season, but it is ruffly and bright for this November day!). Sarah says on her web site:
I never want to become the designer that mass produces and has a dumb logo T-shirt. All of my pieces are one-of-a-kind and made by my own two hands. My mom is my treasure hunter as she sends me vintage clothes from Iowa…”
