Spice Dish

Holiday Shopping. Really?!?!

I've been obsessing about a few things lately and I thought I'd share since (GASP!) gift giving holiday season really, honestly, is right around the corner!!!

1. I saw this fantastic little set the other day and I can't stop craving it:

 

Seriously.... is it possible to have a cuter tea set?

2. Ever since I got my copy I've been cooking from it. It's not flashy, glossy or celebrity-chef-y. It's just simple and fantastic. The recipes are easy to follow, easy to understand and undeniably French.

You really can judge this book by its cover.

3. My apron obsession has recently been rekindled by a purchase I made at a local street fair. While you may not be able to get your hands on the awesome vintage tea-towel, reversible half-apron I picked up...

Etsy has some truly fabulous one of a kind aprons.

4. I have always had a soft spot for the original Alice in Wonderland drawings and these pieces by Fishes Eddy make me want to imbibe everything that has a "drink me" tag on it!

5. I know coupe's are "not great for champagne"... but really who lets it sit long enough for the bubbles to escape?

 

There are an amazing array of these on Ebay, I prefer the multi-colored myself.

Here's to the holidays!

EB

Most Memorable Moments

I'm back from my whirlwind trip and thought I'd share a few of my most memorable food moments with you all:

Hummingbird Bakery on Portobello Road. Delicious cupcakes. Delicious.

Napoleon's Dining Room. Man he knew how to eat.

And then there's these. Most 'memorable' because I can still taste them. Unfortunately.

There's a million more memories. Wine cheaper than water? Vive la France! Korean BBQ in late night London? Love it. Salted caramel yogurt in Paris? A revelation.

Thanks Europe (well except for that exchange rate thing...)

EB

Summer Fling!

Okay. Yes I’m a teacher. When people find out they invariably say “ooh you’re so lucky to have summers off!” Yeah. No. I don’t get summers off. I’m a newbie on the professorial circuit and I’m still paying my crappy schedule-summer session-not getting paid dues. However, I do get a day or two off a week during the summer. Which yes, is awesome (although a paycheck would be awesomer!) I am going to take full advantage of these few precious days. I plan to not only catch up in the blogging world but to also to make the most of the summer by doing all those things I've yearned about all winter like:

Photo by pedrosimoes7
1. Go to PARIS!

2. Go to a ball game or two.

3. Catch up on This American Life at the gym.

4. Go organic in the garden.

5. Improve my Spanish.

6. Explore my city with Mundane Journeys.

7.Read. For fun. Honestly. Just one book!

8. Drink beer and go for the brass ring.

9. Cook from my sorely neglected, ever growing collection of vintage cookbooks.

10. Go to the park. Manshelf?

What will you be doing with your summer?

EB

 

Glad to be Home

Ok so I don't want to offend anybody but I really have a love-hate relationship with Los Angeles. On the pro side? The Getty, the weather, the ocean, the farmers market and Bennett's. I mean it's hard not to love the old-school market full of people who are happy to be surrounded by food goodness.

Unfortunately there are many more reasons why LA and I just don't get along. The traffic, the fact that I'm a San Franciscan (it's a rivalry thing), the soul sucking nature of the 'city', and well...

I rest my case.

Sorry LA... I'm just really glad to be home.

EB

Dime Store Pulp

The James Beard Cookbook how do I love thee? Let me count the ways….  Seriously I could wax poetic about this little paper-bound piece of fabulousness for pages. First off, it is a 95c paperback edition that has a whiff of cheap, dime-store, trashy, pulp novel about it. It has green painted page edges, which nobody does anymore. My edition is from 1966 and features a plump, latter day Beard on the cover stirring up a sauce to place, delicately I’m sure, on the rotund oysters laid out before him.

There are no glossy ‘food-porn’ shots, just skillfully drawn, 60’s-mod sketches of “Cold Dunk Sauces,” appetizers on sticks, and assorted vegetables along with illustrations of sour faced pigs partitioned off into “Fat Back,” “Picnic Ham,” and “Head Cheese” portions and a diagram of lettuces to be used in “Vegetable Salads.”

The book starts off with a list of “Practical Don’ts” which really are practical and still relevant today. Beard starts off this list with “Buy good food, and buy often” noting that you shouldn’t “buy food you don’t need just because it’s cheap.” Here Here!

 

This 518 page jem has recipes for everything from “Anchovy Butter” to “Wine Merchant’s Sauce” and “Aspic” to “Yorkshire Pudding” but have I made a single recipe? Not a chance. And why not? Because this fantastic piece of culinaria has taken up residence in my purse. If I’ve got a few minutes before class or a long line at the bank, a few minutes with a mug of coffee or a tardy friend, out pops Mr. Beard and I’m off in my head whipping up “Braised Beef, Bordeaux Fashion” or reading up on the origin of the hors d’ouvre.

Thank you Mr. Beard.

EB

Loyal "Natives"

I have the distinct feeling that like me, many of you received cookbooks as gifts for the holiday season. My project for the next few weeks is going to be sharing with you the tomes I ripped open with glee. 

 

The first installment was a gift from my aunt Dana. She knows how much I love ‘vintage’ cookbooks so she dug through the family archives and gifted me with the “Loyalty CookBook of the Native Daughters of the Golden West” Huh? What the?

 I had no idea either. A quick Google and apparently The Native Daughters of the Golden West, was and still is, a “fraternal organization dedicated to preserving California's history, improving its present, and ensuring a brighter future for all its residents.” 

 

This smallish, brown leather bound “Loyalty” cookbook looks like it could have been used for fundraising. My aunt didn’t know too much about it except that one of my relatives (a great aunt I think) had a recipe in it. On pg 108 you can find Mary E. Wright’s (of the Bahia Vista Parlor) recipe for Scrambled Eggs with Cheese. Creative? Original? Not necessarily. But with a ½ pound of cheese and cream… I’m sure they are pretty darn tasty.

Scrambled Eggs with Cheese

½ lb American cheese, rub through grater

½ cup cream

8 eggs

1 tbs minced parsley

Salt and pepper to taste

Beat eggs slightly and add ingredients given. Pour into a well-buttered skillet, cook slowly, stirring constantly so the cheese will melt by the time the eggs are cooked. Serve on toast.

 

I love this little book. There are recipes like “Ethel’s Candy Suggestion” and “Goop.” This being a California cookbook there are also Chinese, Portuguese and Mexican recipes. (Hardly authentic, but at least they gave it a shot eh?) And there is an entire chapter devoted to Tamale Pie. An entire chapter. Apparently in 1948 Tamale Pie was where it was at!

Did you get any fascinating reads for the holidays?

EB

Still Hung Over?

                                                    Photo by Gaetan Lee

I love champagne sorbet. It was a special occasion treat for me growing up. Every time there was a special occasion birthdays, anniversaries, graduations etc. my dad liked to go to a very small little French restaurant run by a Turkish chef. He always made champagne sorbet for us when we came in. It was the perfect palate cleanser. But beyond that it was perfectly pink, perfectly sweet and made my teenage self feel very grown up and sophisticated.

This is where you can use not leftover champagne, because lets face it… who has leftover champagne… but maybe you have that bottle that you passed out before you opened. This recipe is very easy. You can either make it in an ice cream maker or make it ‘granita’ style.

Champagne Sorbet

2 cups champagne (pink preferably) chilled
1/4 cup sparkling mineral water
3 tbsp grapefruit juice
1 1/4 cup fine granulated sugar

Heat the water, grapefruit juice and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat until the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and chill completely. Once completely cold add the champagne and stir until well blended.

Either place in ice cream maker and freeze according to directions or pour mixture into shallow baking dish. Place in freezer and freeze mixture for 2 hours. With a fork, scrape and break up the mixture. Freeze another hour and then scrape again. Repeat until you achieve a frozen texture you like. I like to serve with a mint sprig.



Enjoy!

EB

Happy New Year

The sun has set on another year and a new one has begun. There will be changes for all I'm sure, and this gal is no exception. New job, travel plans, new people in my life... it will be interesting for sure. I can honestly say that I'm looking forward to the next year with anticipation, trepidation and excitement.

I hope the new year brings you all everything you could hope for and more.

Best Wishes for the New Year!

EB

Happy New Year!

Holiday Warm Up!

I hope everyone has a fantastic holiday (whatever it may be) and that the new year brings good things to all! I will be MIA until after the 5th. Brownie points if you can tell where I will be warming my cold, cold toes:

photo by BIGDOG3c

Happy Holidays Everyone!

EB

Breathe... and Eat a Cookie

I got caught up in it the past few days. The stress. The "I still have to buy gifts, I need to clean for the dinner party, where's my latke recipe, I have to much to do before vacation, mom's present didn't arrive in the mail even though I sent it 3 weeks ago, the cookies need to be made, the grocery store was out of leeks, the family wants me to cook a ham and a pie?..." stress of the holidays.

I was really letting it get to me, until this morning when I checked my email. A dear friend of mine sent me a photo to let me know how much she enjoyed the cookies I made her. This photo really grounded me. It reminded me what the whole thing is about.

We took the time this week to get together. To sit at her kitchen table and catch up. We swapped gifts. No shiny, noisy, expensive store bought things... but actual, heartfelt gifts. She had me hop up on her massage table and gave me a long, leisurely massage. I gave her the fruits of my baking labor.

Am I still a little worried that everything won't get done? Sure. But I'm also heading into the kitchen to make more cookies.

Happy Friday everyone. Here's to enjoying the season.

EB