Because 2 days is never enough.

I’m not the biggest fan of Food and Wine Magazine, but their foray into video could be worth checking out. The videos, which have been released as free podcasts in the Apple iTunes store, feature everything from instructional cooking segments to Q & A with celebrity chefs. The new content will also be available for free on foodandwine.com in the coming weeks.

From Mediaweek:
Initially, the magazine has pieced together 22 cooking demonstrations from an epicurean festival held in Apsen, Colo., last June, as well as eight interviews with chefs who are regulars on the Food Network, including Bobby Flay, Mario Batali and Emeril Lagasse. But unlike the Food Network’s highly produced fare, Food & Wine is attempting to begin producing more raw video content that provides users with unfettered access to their favorite chefs. Future podcasts will feature footage of top chefs working in their own restaurants.

I just watched Mario Batali squeeze the juices out of a crab and realized this could be a lot of fun to watch if you don’t have TV or if you are traveling with your video iPod.

Check out the podcasts yourself, then leave us a comment to let us know what you think.

My 3DayWeekend “baker’s holiday” with my Mom and Larry was a smashing success, but that’s to be expected since they are the baking pros. We got snowed in the day after I arrived, which made staying indoors to bake even more appealing.

Day 1

• 3 Loaves of White Bread
  We used a simple “quick bread” recipe that has amazing flavor. (It’s quick because the dough only has to rise once.) It’s great in a sandwich, as french toast, or by itself. You can make either 2 medium size loaves or 3 small loaves - and it’s easy to freeze a loaf to eat later. My Mom used it to make french toast for breakfast the next morning with maple syrup and a touch of powdered sugar. She also used it to make the most amazing grilled cheese sandwich (with Muenster) I’ve had in awhile. We dunked it in our favorite tomato and roasted red pepper soup from Trader Joe’s. I used the loaf that wasn’t as shapely as the others to make garlic croutons and panko breadcrumbs.

• Croutons: I tossed cubes of the bread in olive oil and garlic, and sauteed on the stove top until crunchy. They were great with the salad we had for dinner and they are also good submerged in soup.
• Breadcrumbs: I left slices of the bread out overnight to dry and then smashed them into miniscule pieces. Alternatively you can bake bread slices at 200° until they are dry and crush in a food processor. You can also season the crumbs with herbs, garlic powder, or salt. The crumbs go great with chicken breasts. I like to cover the breasts in homemade yogurt, coat with breadcrumbs, then bake in the oven for several minutes on each side. (This technique also works well for chicken tenders.)

• 3 Loaves of Rustic Italian Bread
  These free-form loaves were baked on a stone in the oven without bread pans. We used a Banneton/Brotform basket for one of the loaves when it was proofing and it gave it a nice shape that it retained while it was baking. I used part of a loaf to make garlic crostini when I got back to New York.

Day 2

• 2 loaves of Crusty Honey Whole Wheat Bread
  I used a recipe from Bob’s Red Mill and substituted cow’s milk for the goat’s milk. This recipe calls for an egg in the ingredients and then does not actually include it in the instructions. I made it without the egg and it looked and tasted just fine. To use the egg, add it to the bowl before you start adding the flour. I didn’t have any soy flour on hand, but it’s great to substitute a cup’s worth for the unbleached white flour.
• 2 loaves of Italian Herb Bread
  These nice big loaves had a very subtle herb flavor and were great for lunch and dinner.
• Lemon Bars on Brown Butter Shortbread (from the Tartine cookbook)
  The cookbook suggests using whole pine nuts in the crust since they are complimentary to the lemon. I think the pine nuts were a nice touch, but I might use the pestle and mortar to create smaller pieces next time. These are chock full of lemony goodness with a nice crunchy crust — I will definitely make them again.





• Chicken Risotto with Peas
  Larry showed me all the tricks for making risotto using the chicken stock he made from the roast chicken we had the night before.

I don’t think I’ve ever eaten this much bread in my life! I guess that is the price I have to pay to become a better baker. All of this practice has made me much more confident with my breadmaking skills, but now I’m even more envious of Mom and Larry’s big kitchen.

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I had to travel to Raleigh for work last week on the same day that a badass snowstorm was stomping around New York. My flight was delayed, delayed, and then canceled. The airport was a wild animal park full of enraged, anguished passengers. But me? I was a fountain of inner peace thanks to my ipod full of This American Life episodes and my bag full of yarn.

I finished this cute hat before the plane even left the runway and I resorted to sawing off the end of the yarn with my dull keys to finish it.

Good thing I liked the hat so much because when the airline lost my luggage and didn’t return it to me until the morning I was returning to New York, it was about the only clean thing I had to wear.

Pattern (bear with, I’m not that good at writing patterns):

Cast on 42 stitched onto five double pointed size 13 needles (or a round needle set, but I hate those for hats).

row 1: k4, p3 (repeat 6 times)
row 2: k4, p3 (repeat 6 times)
row 3: k4, p3 (repeat 6 times)
row 4: k4, p3 (repeat 6 times)
row 5: k4, p3 (repeat 6 times)
row 6: cable 2 over, k4, p3
Repeat rows 1-6 until ready to decrease

To decrease:
note: it looks best to continue the cable as you decrease, the easiest way to do this is to begin decreasing on the 6th row after your last cabled row. You can also just add the cable into the decrease row in which it would fall.

Row 1: cable 2 over, k4, p1, p2tog
Row 2: k4, p2tog
Row 3: k2, k2tog, p1
Row 4: k2tog, k1, p1
Row 5: k2tog, p1

Finish by threading the end of the yarn back through the remaining loops and pulling it closed inside the hat.

Enjoy.

I recently went with Karl to a port and chocolate tasting at The Greene Grape. We left we a newfound obsession with port and a nice bottle of tawny port. I also left with a brilliant idea. Cary from Carymo Chocolates was offering samples of her incredible homemade chocolates. My favorite was the coconut curry milk chocolate truffle. I immediately called Mindy and we hatched a plan to make our own truffles as Valentine’s Day gifts for our loved ones. I didn’t expect to turn out Carymo quality overnight, but I did have visions of delicious treats in cute little packages.

Monday night, after a supply run to Fairway on 125th street, I headed to Mindy’s for some chocolate making. Who knew it would turn into such a chocolaty bloodbath.

Lessons learned:

1. Unsweetened chocolate is not the same as bittersweet, in fact, it tastes quite bad.
2. Finely chopped, apparently means, grated into paper thin flakes, at least if you’re interested in actually melting the chocolate.
3. Quit while you’re ahead, don’t start wasting good ingredients like hazelnuts and amaretto on a decidedly loosing battle.
4. Throw away failures, don’t keep them around just so they can rub your nose in your defeat. Watching Karl frantically run to the kitchen garbage to SPIT out said truffle and seeing the box of them still untouched on the fridge only serves to diminish a maker’s esteem.
5. Don’t ride the two train from the Upper West Side to Brooklyn at 11:30 unless you like sitting on a train for an hour an a half, listening to some guy manically hum while another guy pukes in front of you.

Stay tuned for Truffles: Part Two. Mindy and I have vowed not to accept defeat. We will triumph over the chocolate.

I recently visited the Museum of Art and Design with Jess and Karl in mid-town, right across the street from the MOMA. None of us had been there before (or really noticed it, I’m embarassed to say) partially due to the fact that up until recently it was known as the less sexy American Craft Museum.

We were interested in checking out the current exhibit that runs until June: Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting.

Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting explores the phenomenal rise to prominence of knitting, crocheting and lace making in the work of contemporary artists from around the world. Blow torches, fiber optics, digital technology, shredded currency, video, chocolate, and even knitting needles the size of telephone poles are hallmarks in the work of these artists, who have reinvented traditional handcrafts through their introduction of new materials and unorthodox techniques.

Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting showcases approximately 40 works, ranging from obsessive miniatures to architectural interventions, video installations, and performance and participatory pieces—nearly half of which were created especially for the exhibition.

The exhibit consisted of three floors of knitting, crocheting, fabrication and video installations of various scales in a myriad of materials from traditional yarn to glass, porcelain, and found objects. Many of the pieces were truly incredible, and others fell a little flat.

Althea Merback knitted miniature gloves and sweaters (1:144 scale) using silk and knitting needles crafted from delicate medical wire - a whole new take on “micro-knit” garments. The pieces were so intricate that I can’t even imagine creating them on a 1:1 scale. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum is a video of Dave Cole’s massive knitted american flag using telephone poles as knitting needles operated by John Deere excavators. (This real version is on display outside of MOCA in North Adams, Massachusetts.) Dave Cole also knitted a cute and playful three-dimensional teddy bear, that is actually knitted from lead “yarn” and is heavy, not to mention dangerous. And Freddie Robins’s Craft Kills installation is a machine knitted self-portrait that was violently attacked by stray knitting needles.

We’ll definitely keep our finger on the pulse of MAD to see what other exhibits might pop up there in the near future.

If you ever find yourself in Thailand, you must seek out this artistic grad student turned baker. He bakes bread made to look like gruesome body parts from a horror movie. I really cannot fathom how he accomplishes this with bread - it is truly impressive. I might have to get my Mom and Larry to attempt this with me during my Baker’s Holiday this weekend.

Along with edible human heads crafted from dough, chocolate, raisins and cashews, Kittiwat makes human arms, feet, and chicken and pig parts. He uses anatomy books and his vivid memories of visiting a forensics museum to create the human parts.

He hopes his realistic artwork will make people ponder whether they are consuming food, or food is consuming them.

Can you imagine showing up to a pot luck dinner with a severed hand and cheese? I especially love that the baker says the lesson to be learned from his bread is: “don’t judge just by outer appearances.” Now that’s food for thought.

Can’t get enough? For more bloody photos, go here.

I made a card for Karl on Wednesday.
He is a monkey. If you know him, you’ll understand. And he always wears the same hat. And he rides his bike all the time.
So, this is the little illustration I made.

Of course, this shot is before I realized that 2006 is long gone and had to blotch a 7 over the 6.

Lame.

Oh, ye mini-cuisinart, how my life has blossomed since you came to me, wrapped in Christmas decorations, your glistening plastic body aching to whir and chop your way into my heart
.
I love you for the babaganouj and the hummus and the dressings and the rouilles that you have allowed me to prepare. I love you for saving me from cleaning out the cumbersome and dangerous insides of a blender when I am only doing a small job.

I love you for salvaging dinner last week. I made this recipe from 101cookbooks.com on Wednesday, and I’m sorry, but it was a little bit bland. Possibly because I used green curry paste and maybe it’s a bit milder than red? Or maybe I added too many noodles? Anyway, I was completely disappointed because without any biscuit cutters this was a laborious meal, requiring a garbanzo bean can with both ends removed, one-by-one preparation, and stealthy flipping of the little cakes since the noodles stuck to the sides of the can and the tin got flaming hot. But, it occurred to me that my beloved mini-cuisinart could rescue the day with a quick sauce to whip my noodle cakes into shape.

Here’s the sauce I created:

½ cup light coconut milk
2-3 teaspoons green curry paste
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 teaspoons cilantro
Salt to taste

Blend in, of course, mini-cuisinart

I also served rescued cakes with a mango-cucumber salad (with lime, salt and paprika) like they make in Mexico. I’m not sure where in the world that mango came from this time of year, but it was stupendous.

I’ve decided that my friend Debi, is my hero.

Let me start at the begining.

You see, I’m feeling a bit sorry for myself. I knit a terrible, vile hat on the train ride back from Philly. I had to make an emergency hat to replace the lost, cute white alpaca hat I made last week. I whipped together a very chunky, red alpaca blend into a ribbed hat. Alas, I came home and looked in the mirror and I couldn’t decide whether to laugh or cry. It looked like something third grader would make at camp and present proudly to a much chagrined parent.

But I bet this never happens to Debi. She makes lovely things, all the time. Like the kind of things that someone would actually spend money on, not the “learning how to” or “yay, I’m getting better” type things that I blog about.

She makes fantastic cards and even designed my bff, Jody’s wedding invitations. Her current project is bringing amazing little handmade beasties to life. These expressive little knit creatures have so much personality that I just want a whole pile of them.

You can check out Debi’s website here to see all the dear beasts that could be your very own. Debi is also selling her little friends on esty, where they come complete with some charming biographical information.