Electric Stove

Skywriting, Watercress, and Monks

2007-05-03T18:10:00.000-04:00

I was at a day long meeting down on Varick Street today. I snuck outside for lunch, looked up and saw planes drawing: N Y - L O N D . . . It was "New York" and "London" -- two favorite/favourite cities for me and R*.

Pretty good picture for a camera phone, I thought. (It was an ad for EOS airline.)

Speaking of the Brits and trying to stick to the cooking theme of my blog, I've wrote two posts this week about watercress, a very British veg, over at Apartment Therapy: Kitchen. I learned that some say eating a whole bag of watercress is a good hangover cure and I shared my recipe for steamed spinach and watercress as inspired by the Holy Cross monks.

Mom and I are spending Memorial Day weekend with the monks. Looking forward to it.

Congratulations on your cookbook, Sara Kate

2007-04-23T12:30:00.000-04:00

My copy of The Greyston Bakery Cookbook by Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan just arrived. Sara Kate is my editor at Apartment Therapy: Kitchen. I'm going to sneak out for a longish lunch to enjoy the sun and her new book.

The cookbook shares recipes and stories from Greyston Barkery, a Yonkers, NY shop that employs local community members who may not otherwise have jobs.

Greystone's mission statment says: "For two decades, Greyston Bakery has blended ingredients - creamy butter, personal transformation, and community renewal - in Yonkers, NY . . ."

I met with my friend AS, a priest in her early 30s ("my age!" as We Like Sheep likes to exclaim), yesterday for Thai food in Hell's Kitchen. We talked a book she's working on and about my interests around the intersection of faith and economoics, the meeting of good business and good works. Greyston Bakery is a delicious example of that.

Googling Mark Bittman

2007-04-20T18:54:00.000-04:00

I have no idea if he is or isn't (I am), but one of the top keyword combos that send people here is "Mark Bittman, gay."

Mark Bittman writes The Minimalist column for the New York Times and his How To Cook Everything is one of my favorite cookbooks. He's an excellent food writer and I learn so much from him.

Some people doing that "Bittman, gay" Google search are probably looking for a food writing hero of sorts, a cool gay guy making waves in the field. Anyone have favorite out gay food writers?

R* and I made Bittman's anchovy pasta sauce on Wednesday night.

Ask NYC restaurants to support The Tap Project

2007-02-12T09:37:00.000-05:00

Over 21% of children living in the developing world
do not have access to clean water.
That’s more than one billion people, or one in five children.

I do not usually talk about my work life here, but I'm working on a fun, important new project at work. I think it should be especially interesting to cooks and food bloggers, so I wanted to share.

I'm the online marketing manager at the U.S. Fund for UNICEF in June. At work I'm exposed to the great need of children around the world every day.

I also see the great opportunity, the potential to change these horrible statistics. While a billion children around the world don't have access to clean water today, it just doesn't have to be that way forever. We can make a difference and the dollars donated to organizations like UNICEF have a direct impact.

I'm working on a new program here at UNICEF and I wanted to make sure I shared this with my food blog contacts too. It's called The Tap Project.

On March 22, participating restaurants in New York City will ask diners to pay $1 for the same tap water they normally serve for free. The funds collected will support UNICEF water programs, which provide safe drinking water for children around the world.

Here's how you can help:
If you're in NYC, you can help by asking restaurants to participate in this program. I've reached out to a couple of my favorite places and I've asked them to participate. I hope you'll do that too.

Also, mark your calender for 3/22/06 -- World Water Day. Check the Tap Project site and dine at a Tap Project restaurant that night. That night, please thank the restaurant for supporting UNICEF's work.

If you're aren't in NYC, you can support this program by making a donation or volunteering for UNICEF. Also, the program will be national next year, so sign up now for more information.

Pork for New Year's Day

2007-01-02T00:19:00.000-05:00

A long time ago my mom told me that someone told her you can't eat chicken on New Year's Day, you'll scratch and scratch all year. (And you have to say scratch twice. "Scratch and scratch all year" is part of this menu choice.)

For the past couple of New Year's Day, I made happen John, following a Lee Brother's recipe from The New York Times, but I decided to try something new today.

I bought one of those large club-like pieces of pork that are always on the bottom shelf of the meat cooler in my local grocery stores. It's amazing that they are under a dollar a pound. I probably don't want to know why its so cheap.

Last night I made a paste of seeded dried smoked peppers, garlic, oil, cider vinegar, oregano and a pinch of cinnamon, working very loosely from a Pork Adobo recipe in the new Joy of Cooking. I rubbed the paste all over my six pound leg of pork or fresh ham.

This afternoon, I cooked two onions for about five minutes in some oil, added a can of vegetable stock and then the pork and all the paste on top. It cooked for about four hours in my huge dutch oven until it was close to falling apart and easy to pull into strings with a fork.

Then I pulled it out of the pot and let it cool.

Then, while R* and I watched the HGTV Dream House (ugly blue kitchen counters, yuck) I made us some pork sandwiches. They were tasty, delicious. The meat was moist, good texture. I especially liked the edges of the meat where the spice sauce really sunk into the meat. Pulling all the meat off the joint made a big mess and I'm not sure what I'll do with all that pork? More sandwiches maybe?

Anyway, since we had pork (and I had crabcakes and eggs from the diner on the corner), let's hope we won't scratch and scratch all year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR . . . and happy blog-birthday to me. It was a year ago today that I got so pissed at the disgusting Shirley's Tunnel of Fudge Cake that I started this blog.

Party's over people

2006-12-19T16:05:00.000-05:00

IMG_0795.JPG
Originally uploaded by electric stove.

We had a great holiday book party. I'll post more pictures and recipes soon.

C and R*

More for Repeal Day

2006-12-05T17:39:00.000-05:00

Don't miss Lobstersquad's post about Hendrick's gin.

I can't stand gin. Yecch, it's like licking the bottom of the Christmas tree. Tell me all you want about juniper and botanicals and I still wont' like it. Put me in a room full of my Brit friends and my R* eating cucumber sandwhices and gin and tonics and I'll pass on the G&T's.

But I love Hendricks. There is something so rose-y, so fresh, complicated but clean. I must buy a bottle and some cucumber and lemon garnish.

Happy Repeal Day

2006-12-05T16:45:00.000-05:00

It was 73 years ago today that Prohibition was repealed. Dewars and The New York Times used this occasion to print a creative two page spread in today's paper. Too bad the nytimes.com/repealday link from the ad just goes to a lousy, slow-to-download PDF . I was expecting something as exciting and well designed as the ad in the paper. Opportunity lost for Dewar's, but R* and I are already customers. We might go to Johnny Walker's tastings, but we drink Dewar's.

In other Repeal Day related news, I decided on the punch recipe for my Holiday Party. We'll serve Lemon Drop Champagne Punch. Thanks for the recipe, Martha. We usually make "pour whatever people bring in the punch bowl with some pink lemonade punch" but this should class things up a bit.

Lemon Drop punch should fit my food inspirations for the party: British holiday cooking and citrus. I learned last week that the Brits are one of the largest per capita champage consumers in the world

Holiday Party #4: Too Much White (Christmas) Food?

2006-12-04T00:12:00.000-05:00

The December issue of Domino Magazine talks about how glamorous it can be to serve a whole meal with all white food. A white bean soup, a white entree, trees of egg white cookies. Maybe that's hot, but one of the first dinners was just that tone-on-tone, but I didn't mean to do it. I think it was pork, canned apple sauce and rice or maybe egg noodles?! White, white, white, and surely not glamorous. I was a junior in college, if I'm remembering right, and I didn't realize everything would be the same color until I got it all on the plate?

Everything I want to serve for the main course for the Christmas party is white. But I'm not going to do all white, since I don't think my all white food bufet would ever be as trendy as what Domino's serving up.

R* and I decided on bacon wraped maple pork loin (white) and chestnut and chipolata dressing (kinda white). I didn't think we needed to serve both mashed potatoes (white) and dressing for a standing-up buffet cocktail party? R* convinced me I could make both since dressing and the potatoes are easy to make ahead of time. I also wanted to serve roasted cauliflower (there's that white food again). Roasted cauliflower is my favorite in(ish)-season vegetable, but fearing an un-trendy white plate, I think I'll have to skip it.

CQ suggested we round it out with the salad we had a few years back. I clipped the recipe from Oprah's magazine: greens, stilton, dried cherries, tamari almonds. I'm not the world's biggest salad fan and it would mean another trip to Trader Joe's for tamari almonds, but that salad might be the way to un-whiten our Christmas plates.

I was thinking sweet potatoes, instead of the mashed potatoes, but I don't like them. I can eat them to be polite, but they aren't something I'd like to serve a gaggle of guests. Plus we were thinking butternut squash soup with Thai spices as the amuse bouche. There's something silly but fun about soup shooters.

R* gave me an authographed copy of Dorie Greenspan's new Baking book. CQ was paging through it tongiht, helping me come up with ideas for the citrus desserts. She found a recipe for Lenox Almond Biscotti, with a variation that calls for lemon. I think they'd go well with champagne or proscecco. As the very helpful margin note says, they can be made a week ahead and stored. I can make them next weekend and have them all taken care of before the party.

It's so cool that Mr. S made Nigella's clementine cake. I think my friend S in DC (who shares the same birthday, happy belated-birthday-cakes for us!) had plans to make it too. I put my clementines in a bowl with some peppermint candy. For now they are a great back drop for the three wise men.

Holiday Party #3: Planning my buffet menu

2006-11-28T10:02:00.000-05:00

A Very British Christmas
Originally uploaded by Flipsy.

I'm planning the buffet menu for our Holiday Book Party. It's about three weeks away so I'm starting to pressure myself to get the menu locked down. Then I can start working on getting the ingredients together, testing some recipes, and placing orders with Fresh Direct, the butcher, and maybe, just maybe splurge for a new piece of All Clad from Cookware and More as a birthday/Christmas treat to myself.

While the whole menu won't be strictly British, some of the menu will be inspired by my take on Christmas in Britan, R*'s home country. I've never been in the UK for Christmas, but I've been doing my research and asking R* lots of annoying questions.

Appetizers
I love the idea of serving a bunch of hot, homemade appetizer, but it is always a struggle. People gulp them down the second I yank them out of the oven. I make Martha's Mini Meatball Sandwiches every year, so I'll stick with that tradition. I'd also like to do some kind of stuffed mushroom, maybe with crab? And then maybe some mini reubens -- I like to do something that's an homage to NYC. Or a soup served on tiny spoons? I'm also going to make some spinach artichoke dip and a few other things that can sit out on trays for a while. If people have the chance to serve themselves some food, there won't be as much of a frenzy over the passed appetizers, I think.

I'm in love with scrambled eggs made in a double boiler, French style as I tried on my first (and only) trip to Paris. Sprinkled with truffle salt, they are amazing and so so rich and earthy. What's a way to adapt that for an appetizer? Is double-boiling eggs for a big crowd too ambitious, will they go cold soon? (Mr. S, are you still reading my blog? For some reason, I'm thinking you might have some soothing, common sense appetizer advice?)

How can I keep the appetizers going while I keep the dinner hot too?

Stilton will be the appetizer nod to the Brits. If I'm over ambitious, I could make tarts with stilton and maybe carmelized onions? Or, more likely, I'll buy a big wedge of stilton and serve it with a port syrup.

The Main Course
The main course is pretty locked, based on a trip I made to R*'s hometown this summer (Kidderminster, UK!) and Elizabeth David's Christmas cookbook. We'll serve bacon wrapped maple pork loin (in theory, this is a Canadian recipe, but it seems pretty Brit to me), mashed potatoes, chestnut and chipolata dressing (definately British, but I need to find a recipe). I haven't decide on the vegetable yet. I'd like to serve roasted cauliflower, but that's too much white on the plate with pork and potatoes. Any suggestions? I also thought about a salad, but since our buffet will be serving 40+ people over the course of a couple hours, I don't think a salad could stand up to it.

Desserts
Nigella Lawson's Clementine Cake is one of my top 5 favorite cakes. I've made this this cake a bunch of times in January and February, when clementines are so available, but I've never served this "wonderfully damp, dense and aromatic flourless cake" for Christmas, but it is a Christmas cake with roots in the UK, like my main course inspiration. The clementine cake will be the start of the dessert buffet. Hopefully, I can find almond flour someplace cheaper than what's at Dean and Deluca, my usual source.

I'm hoping to stick with a citrus theme for the rest of the desserts. To me, there's something clean and spark-y about serving a citrus dessert course, when people will be expecting chocolate and cut out cookies. Maybe a pavlova with tangerines if I'm ambitious? Or grapefruit cookies, maybe drizzled with chocolate or filled with marmalade? Citrus and chocolate seems kind of gross to me, but would I feel weird about not serving any chocolate? This meyer lemon pound cake looks good too and can be made ahead. Or lemon or blood orange granita, but I don't want to wash so many spoons. You do have to think about things like this when cooking for a crowd.

I'll be blogging some holiday buffet ideas over at Apartment Therapy Kitchen and would love some suggestions and ideas. I hope you'll post some comments and suggestions here. Once everything is "sorted" as my Brits would say, I'll post my full menu and recipe links here.

Happy Holidays! (Flipsy, thanks for letting me borrow your picture)

Banana bread sucks . . . Happy Thanksgiving!

2006-11-21T22:55:00.000-05:00

Damn you, Thanksgiving quick breads. Every year my mom asks me to bring the breads. And every year I try to make zucchini bread or cranberry yogurt bread or some such. I try to look for recipes that aren't to leaden or sweet, but are also easy enough to make on a work night and zip into a bag to travel back to my parent's house in PA.

I want, of course, to bring something nice or at least decent. I feel like I'm somewhat accomplished in the kitchen, but I can never get these "quick breads" right. What am I doing wrong?

This year I thought I had the problem licked: found a good recipe on Martha's site, much better than the Big Bird (Hippie, 1970's-style All Whole Wheat Flour) Banana bread I made a few years back. It was much easier to make two loaves of the same flavor. I happened to have flax seed meal on hand (from when we got it as gift of sorts when we went to see the Martha Show last spring. Plus I remembered to buy bananas a week ahead so they would be over-ripe enough for banana bread.

I took the two loaves out of the oven about an hour ago. I tested them with a strand of dried spaghetti to make sure they were cooked all the way through. They've been on a rack cooling and I just started to wrap them up and head to bed. Everything seemed great. I even smiled to myself -- this year, I've got this mini-melo-drama over making quick breads licked.

Not so fast.

One of the loaves seems perfect. When I started to wrap the second loaf of banana bread, I heard this gushing sound. I looked down to see a crack forming across the tip of the loaf. The center of the second loaf was still doughy, nearly raw.

Don't tell anyone, but I'm re-pre-heating the oven now. I'm going to just chuck that bad banana bread back in the oven for 10 or 15 minutes while I'm cleaning up from the cranberry sauce and cranberry relish I made. See if that firms up the middle of it good enough.

I'm also finishing up my two kids of cranberries. I couldn't decided what kind I wanted to make. I'd always wanted to try cooking cranberries, listening them pop open was fun. But I think my family likes the cranberry relish where you just whiz up cranberries and an orange, rind and all, in the food processor.

Both the cranberry dishes seems good and one of the loaves of banana bread is good. I guess three out of four ain't bad.

Making Minimalist Mark Bittman's No Knead Bread

2006-11-14T17:09:00.000-05:00

Dear New York Times Food Minimalist Mark Bittman,

I made your new bread recipe over the weekend.

You've managed to stay on The New York Times most emailed list for a week! You're at #12 today, but earlier in the week, both the recipe and your article were in the top 5, even as the Democrats took Congress. Imagine if this was a slower news week and the recipe and the article counted as the same piece? You'd still be #1! I say you're getting the following you deserve. Take that Florence Fabricant and Frank Rich!

Now for the not so good news: I'm sorry to say you (or at least you recipe) and I did not get off to a good start with this No-Knead Bread recipe.

I made a special trip to the grocery store to get fresh yeast. Your recipe calls for 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast, but the grocery store had only "highly active rapid rise" and "active dry". I printed out your recipe and brought it with me to the store since I knew there was more than one kind of yeast at the store, but neither of these were labeled "instant." I chose "active dry" since that's what I usually buy. Was I right?

I got home from the store and stirred everything togehther. It looked "shaggy", just like you eloquently said it would. That made me feel more confident in my breadmaking abilities.

After the long rise, it was bubbly just like you said. Why didn't the recipe call for sugar? Don't some people say the yeast "eats" the sugar?

I coated with cornmeal and waited through the second rise, while I made our turkey dinner. (We also had brussle sprouts with bacon and a dash of apple cider vinegar, amazing mashed potaotes -- heavy cream is my trick. I didn't have enough broth, so we couldn't have stuffing. Drat!) I taste as I cook. I usually love the flavor of raw bread dough, but this dough had much less flavor than most -- is that becasue your recipe calls for so much yeast and no sugar?

After this second rise, you said: When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger. That didn't happen :-( That might be becasue I didn't use the right yeast, or my kitchen isn't warm enough or maybe becasue I accidently smushed it once while I was racing around getting the turkey together?

To be honest with you, Mark Bittman, I got kind of sick of it. I didn't want to date the bread, I wanted to eat it and it had been hanging around for almost a whole day by this point. After the turkey came out of the oven, I heated up the oven to 450, got my red Le Creuset hot and chucked it in the oven.

Here, I made two more mistakes: I'm still getting used to my digital oven and I might have turned it off by mistake, instead of warming the oven. I also used my largest dutch oven -- too large I think now that I re-read your recipe. " 6- to 8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex or ceramic)" you say in the recipe. Is there a way to quickly tell what size your Le Creusets are, Mark?

In the middle of our turkey dinner, I made a half hearted attempt to re-heat the oven and rescue this poor bread, while CQ and R* went on eating dinner.

My bread came out ugly and flat -- blame the too-big-pan, the messed up rise, the wrong temp in the oven and maybe even the yeast -- but here's the kicker: it was still edible! I pulled that bread out of the oven while I served out some hot chocolate and I'll be damned: the crust was amazing, just like you promised. The crust had this delicate crackle. The insides of the bread were so-so, a little too spongy and not full risen. The loaf was so ugly that I didn't even take a picture to show you, I was too embarased since you said "the method is complicated enough that you would need a very ambitious 8-year-old." I am 22.5 years older than your 8 year old and still found a way to mess it up.

But let's get back to that crust. That "enviable, crackling crust, the feature of bread that most frequently separates the amateurs from the pros." Mark, the crust is killer and somehow I acheived it. I woke up in the middle of the night last night and chowed down on my flat ugly loaf, enjoying all that crust.

You said it might take a few times to get it exactaly right. I'm going to give it another try soon. Can you please take a look at these pictures, see if I'm doing anything else wrong? And let me know about the yeast!

Your loyal reader and fan,

Chris

Holiday Party #2: 57 invitations and 650 square feet

2006-11-13T15:05:00.000-05:00

R* and I sent out the Evite to our holiday party last night . . . I was worried people might think we're thinking too far ahead, but a couple of people have already emailed back and said they'd accepted other invitations for parties that night. There was a review of the this year's Radio City Christmas Spectacular in the Times today. So we're right on time.

We've invited 57 family and friends and their guests. We both love our holiday party and are already emailing back and forth with plans and ideas. We'll serve appetizer and then a light supper and then some desserts and of course cocktails all the way.

Depending on how the RSVPs come in, and we're hoping everyone can make it, this could be the biggest event we've ever hosted in the apartment.

For the supper, we're thinking turkey and mashed potatoes as we did last year. Mashed potatoes for a big crew is fine -- I mash them up in the standing mixer and then keep them warm in the crock pot. I might make one big turkey and then one or two turkey breasts too.

I'm really excited for the challenge of cooking well for this large of a crowd. If you have any suggestions on apartment cooking for large groups, please comment here.

In the elevator at work today, one guy was bragging to his co-worker about his "huge" Thanksgiving party. From what I could gather, he has a large house on Long Island. He's having 28 people!

I should have asked him to come to Brooklyn to see our holiday party for 40-50 in our small one bedroom!

Stove on the Sidewalk

2006-11-09T12:03:00.000-05:00

IMG_2788.JPG
Originally uploaded by electric stove.

I saw this old-fashioned stove, carefully wrapped in plastic, just sitting out on a stoop in my neighboorhood. It seems like someone must have ordered a fixed-up old stove for their new kitchen? If it was on the way out, it wouldn't be wrapped so perfectly.

Look at this thing. Is that four ovens? Does anyone know more about this stove?

I first saw it early in the morning the day before Halloween. There was dew clinging to the plastic, so it looked a little ghostly or haunted. A while back, there must have been someone who treasured this stove when it was new, and then someone else who couldn't wait to be rid of it and get something more modern.

And now it seems like it will get pride of place again in someone's brownstone on Sterling Place. Dare me to knock on their door and ask to see their new kitchen?

A little farther down my street, an old sink is still chained down.

Another bunch of NYC food bloggers

2006-11-06T15:53:00.000-05:00

Vanessa of Vanesscipes read about the NYC Food Blogger Pickle Party we had at my apartment on Saturday and told me that Habeas Brulee hosted a food blogger pot-luck a few weeks back and started a mailing list for NYC food bloggers.

Hopefully both groups can get together for a bigger event sometime!

Kee's Chocolates from Cravings

2006-11-05T15:24:00.000-05:00

Cynthia, the wine and champage editor from Cravings, brought a box of truffles from Kee's Chocolates.

Chocolate shops are popping up all over the city: chocolate drinks, luxe truffles and all that. I have to admit, I hadn't seen the reason for all the fuss. Sure, an occasional mocha is a good thing. And last Christmas, I got a box of chile chocolates from Jacques Torres that I liked.

But, after tasting these Black Sesame truffles, now I have a new craving.

"They're just so clean," Cynthia said.

Yes, clean is why these chocolates are different and so special. There's a pristine mouth-feel that reminds me of sushi and not just becasue of the black and white sesame seed crust.

* * *

Grocery Guy says "however weird people who read food blogs are, people who write them are even weirder." CQ noticed that it had to be a NYC crowd becasue almost everyone had black glasses.

Tag your pictures "pickleparty"

2006-11-05T01:36:00.000-05:00

food blogger party, centerpiece
Originally uploaded by smitten.

Smitten, thanks for posting your great pictures so quick!

Thank You, Wheelhouse Pickles

2006-11-05T01:16:00.000-05:00

Thank You, Wheelhouse Pickles, originally uploaded by electric stove.

Pshew! So many bloggers and so many pickles. It was excellent to meet so many new friends: NYC food bloggers, local food store owners and food blog fans.

I think we had more than 35 people here tonight.

A huge thank you to Jon from Wheelhouse Pickles for cooking the food and providing all the pickles. Thank you Stinky Brooklyn and Smith and Vine for the cheese and the introduction to the 50/50 Martini.

Thanks also to Ann and The Boy from A Chicken in Every Grannycart for gathering the crowd.

I'd like to collect a list of all the bloggers and guests who were here tonight, so if you were, please speak up and post a comment so we can have a link to your site. If you took pictures tonight and are posting them, let us know where we can look too.

Good night and thanks, Chris and R*.

Where have all the flowers gone?

2006-11-04T15:52:00.000-05:00

Where have all the flowers gone?, originally uploaded by electric stove.

I went to the farmer's market at Grand Army Plaza to get flowers and heavy cream for tonight's party. I wanted to make some nice centerpieces and some whipped cream for the egg creams I might make for dessert.

No more flowers anymore. It's gone too cold here now. Cabbage roses and wheat wreaths at the flower stand this week. Everyone was in mini-mourning for all the colors that were there just a few weeks back.

"If you're going to do the eat seasonal thing," I snapped to someone, "this is part of it."

"Do you cook them or plant them?" she asked.

"Neither, they are flowers," I said.

She wasn't convinced. Me either.

Truffle & Salt: Getting ready for the blogger party

2006-11-04T11:39:00.000-05:00

IMG_2811.JPG, originally uploaded by electric stove.

Popcorn is one of my favorite party snacks. Beats opening up a bag of chips, right?

I was thinking about popcorn while I was trolling Crate and Barrel last night. Had to pick up some martini glasses and candles.

Then, I decided I could make the popcorn a bit more exciting. I decided I'd get some Truffle Salt for the popcorn. I didn't realize it was $28 for 3.5 ounces.

After much angst, I picked it up and put it back twice, I decided I'd go for it.

Two new things to be excited about

2006-11-03T13:07:00.000-05:00

I just found a great NYC food blog. Gezellig Girl is brave enough to post about how her cooking style differs from her mom's (hi Mom!), knows about Chinatown (and I want to learn!), is interested in teapots and watches Top Chef. It is very late notice, but I hope she might be able to make it to our NYC Food Blogger party tomorrow.

The second exciting thing is that I won an Ebay auction for the December 2004 issue of Martha Stewart Living.

Not that there were many people clamoring for this magazine, but I really wanted it. Someone was bidding against me, but I still got it for only $4.82.

In that issue, there's information about how to make Christmas centerpieces using carnations. Carnations -- the un-exotic, cheap, forgotten flower, bouquet filler -- reimagined into modern, interesting, yet still inexpensive centerpieces. Its sort of a metaphor for the rediscovery of my part of Brooklyn, or just a good life philosophy in general.

I'm hoping I can pull something like this off for our Holiday Book party. I'm off to Bed Bath and Beyond to think up some simple decor idea for tomorrow night's Food Blogger Pickle Party.

Two parties to plan!

2006-11-02T18:41:00.000-05:00

PARTY #1
R* and I are hosting -- with much help from Ann and Jon -- a pickle-tasting party on Saturday night. I've been jealous how how the bloggers on the West Coast get together and meet each other in real life, so we're going to host NYC food bloggers and friends at our party. Looks like about 25 people are coming.

To keep it low stress, the food bloggers aren't cooking. Jon's brinig pickles from his small-batch Brooklyn-based pickle company, Wheelhouse Pickles.

I need to admit I always get anxious as it gets closer and closer to hosting a party: will the crowd mesh, will there be enough booze, is the food right, R* should get some new iTunes for the audio ambience, how will I find enough time to clean the bathroom . . .

Saturday's pickle party is making me especially nervous since some of my favorite NYC food bloggers and apartment therapists are coming. It is not unlike having Martha Stewart come over.

P.S. If you're an NYC food blogger and you want to come to the pickle party, lemme know. It's a very small apartment, but we'll make it work.

PARTY #2
R* and I also have a Holiday Party every year. We start planning it every Halloween. It's our one big event of the year. So now's the time for me to get out my recipes and notes from last year and start to plan.

I think it's a little bit creepy or boring to write about our party and all the brooding about it and planning and recipes, but maybe it will be fun. At least we'd have a record of what we did for the party this year. If anyone has seen someone blog "a month in the life of planning my party" kind of a blog, let me know, I'd like to see how they did it.

My first idea is that I want to have some amuse-bouches. I love the little appetizer spoons that I blogged here. Today I had perfect reuben sandwhich at a deli in Murray Hill. I'm thinknig corned beef with spicy mustard on a bed of sauerkraut with some cheese metled on top and a drop of spicy mustard. Would that be a weird thing to serve on these spoons? (Sigh, these spoons look kind of ugly in the picture on the web. In the catalog, they looked much better.)

Tour the offices of Martha Stewart Living

2006-10-26T13:32:00.000-04:00

R* and I got to take a behind the scenes look at the offices of Martha Stewart Living. I posted a photo tour over at my Apartment Therapy Kitchen gig. Check it out! We got some great pictures of the test kitchen and the clearstory space.

And here's a post about the day R* and I went to Martha's talk show.

Monkey Face Cupcakes

2006-10-24T17:01:00.000-04:00

Check out these Monkey Face cupcakes my college friend EH made for her son's first birthday. Totally adorable!

A dis from Grub Street

2006-09-27T22:06:00.000-04:00

Today, New York magazine's 10 day old food blog Grub Street says:
"Frankly, we're not always flattered to be part of that great, wide, amateurish group of people known as food bloggers. But some blogs we very much admire — like Augieland . . . "

To see the full post, click here.