Wednesday, 23 December 2009
addenda...
I was chuckling over this Pork, knife and spoon blog - found at the height of my pork obsession when I don't seem to manage a day without sausages or bacon - when I found it was linked to this really good Gluten-Free Girl blog. I don't need gluten free food, but I can never pass up a recipe, and these cinnamon rolls look really wonderful.
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
virtual feasts
How very exciting. Do you see I have a comment from another venerable blogger? It fired me up to see the excellent Turmeric and Saffron blog. It also reminded me that although I save food-related bookmarks to delicious, I haven't updated my list of links here (on the right of this page) so have set to sharing some new favourites. Many have been recommended by Bert whenever she sees a good recipe to pass on.
I recently tried 'Stumbleupon', a website which directs you to recommended - and therefore, generally the best of the internet - websites, on topics you specify you are interested in. It is terrifically easy, and with great serendipity the first website I stumbled upon was 'Tastespotting', a veritable treat : a sort of epicenter of food blogs. A place where all good food blogs are sucked into and each displayed via one hungry-making picture. A place where one loses all sense of time as you click on the 'dirty kitchen secrets' link, or the picture of a gingerbread-house-garnish to perch on the edge of your festive hot chocolate mug. The cheesecake brownie is the best one to have caught my eye, though. A snug fit for HG's birthday cake if ever I saw one.
I also spend a lot of time looking at the Guardian 'Word of Mouth' food blogs - and reading comments from the legion followers - but have missed it off the list. For the same reasons I don't have the BBC good food, Times Online archives of Giles Coren or AA Gill, or any other of the big ones I enjoy to read: you already know about them. I also omitted Nigella Lawson's website, but only because I already devote too much time to (re)reading her books. Or maybe the pink heart background puts me off a little -?
I have a couple of very exciting library-related finds which will have to wait until January for further investigation.
I recently tried 'Stumbleupon', a website which directs you to recommended - and therefore, generally the best of the internet - websites, on topics you specify you are interested in. It is terrifically easy, and with great serendipity the first website I stumbled upon was 'Tastespotting', a veritable treat : a sort of epicenter of food blogs. A place where all good food blogs are sucked into and each displayed via one hungry-making picture. A place where one loses all sense of time as you click on the 'dirty kitchen secrets' link, or the picture of a gingerbread-house-garnish to perch on the edge of your festive hot chocolate mug. The cheesecake brownie is the best one to have caught my eye, though. A snug fit for HG's birthday cake if ever I saw one.
I also spend a lot of time looking at the Guardian 'Word of Mouth' food blogs - and reading comments from the legion followers - but have missed it off the list. For the same reasons I don't have the BBC good food, Times Online archives of Giles Coren or AA Gill, or any other of the big ones I enjoy to read: you already know about them. I also omitted Nigella Lawson's website, but only because I already devote too much time to (re)reading her books. Or maybe the pink heart background puts me off a little -?
I have a couple of very exciting library-related finds which will have to wait until January for further investigation.
Monday, 7 December 2009
light fan-Tas-tic
It is said that 'energy breeds energy', to mean that the more you exercise the more you want to: in the same way, I think good food breeds good food. Today's good breakfast led to a wonderful lunch... who knows what will happen this evening!
Fearing a breakfast slump of the type only experienced in 2007 (dark days indeed), I decided to perk up my morning with some savoury muffins and fried sausages. I was so excited that I actually woke up at 4 or 5 am, worried I had over-slept, and feeling as I had years ago on Christmas mornings when my sisters and I were so impatient to start the day. Oh for that enthusiasm now!
I had measured out the dry ingredients the night before, so in the morning I just put together the wet ingredients, grated some cheese, mixed the whole lot together and dolloped it into moulds. I chucked chipolata sausages into a frying pan and went to get dressed while the gent kept an eye on everything and made coffee. A shower later and all was ready. Given how gloomy the morning was, this was the best possible start to the day: hot, salty calories and a cooking smell to rouse even the laziest of appetites. The muffins were more heavy than sweet muffins, not at all the same texture, but welcomingly so. A couple of these were quite a defence against mid-morning hunger.
In fact, their only rivals for top-savoury-bake this year would be the watercress scones I found at a Saturday market in Alton - truly scrumptious, as the song would have it.
Lunch at Tas was fantastic. I went with work colleagues and we shared around seven meze dishes with wonderful, fresh flavours; then I had a main dish of 'kalamari', perfectly, crispily cooked, and served with a walnut sauce. I'm not sure these are flavours that I would choose to put together again - a squeeze of lemon was sufficient for me - however, the walnut sauce was beautiful in its own right, and would be pretty amazing with pasta. Next task: try and re-create the walnut sauce at home!
http://www.tasrestaurant.com/
7/12/09
Fearing a breakfast slump of the type only experienced in 2007 (dark days indeed), I decided to perk up my morning with some savoury muffins and fried sausages. I was so excited that I actually woke up at 4 or 5 am, worried I had over-slept, and feeling as I had years ago on Christmas mornings when my sisters and I were so impatient to start the day. Oh for that enthusiasm now!
I had measured out the dry ingredients the night before, so in the morning I just put together the wet ingredients, grated some cheese, mixed the whole lot together and dolloped it into moulds. I chucked chipolata sausages into a frying pan and went to get dressed while the gent kept an eye on everything and made coffee. A shower later and all was ready. Given how gloomy the morning was, this was the best possible start to the day: hot, salty calories and a cooking smell to rouse even the laziest of appetites. The muffins were more heavy than sweet muffins, not at all the same texture, but welcomingly so. A couple of these were quite a defence against mid-morning hunger.
In fact, their only rivals for top-savoury-bake this year would be the watercress scones I found at a Saturday market in Alton - truly scrumptious, as the song would have it.
Lunch at Tas was fantastic. I went with work colleagues and we shared around seven meze dishes with wonderful, fresh flavours; then I had a main dish of 'kalamari', perfectly, crispily cooked, and served with a walnut sauce. I'm not sure these are flavours that I would choose to put together again - a squeeze of lemon was sufficient for me - however, the walnut sauce was beautiful in its own right, and would be pretty amazing with pasta. Next task: try and re-create the walnut sauce at home!
http://www.tasrestaurant.com/
7/12/09
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