Bread Variations

I finally went to the Kerrytown Market this morning (without Mr.S...sorry) I couldn't help it, it was on the way to getting coffee and everything looked so fresh and juicy. Anyway I bought some fabulous bread.
Roasted Garlic Cheddar -&- Jalepano Cheddar

I just cut off the slice of the Roasted Garlic Cheddar, it pretty fantastic.
It getting that time of the month where I become an endless pit for anything carb w/ cheese :)
Here are some links to good recipes for bread I found. Enjoy!

Smoked Cheddar Twists
Cheddar Jalepano Corn Sticks
Monkey Bread (try making the biscuits yourself :)

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Lime & Basil Tilapia

Mmmmm. This was so great. A wonderful light grilling dish. Mr.S made this for me last night. It was wonderful. Believe me, thinking about him making this 1 year ago sounds far fetched. I'll let him talk about it and not ruin it, but I will post the recipe in the meantime. It has bourbon in the marinade...granted Mr.S accidentally put in 2tbs instead of 2tsp. :) I actually think that made it even better..delicious.
I wish I could have it for lunch today, I feel like I can smell it right now.

Ingredients
4 tilapia fillets (about 1 pound)
4 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons lime juice
zest of 2 limes
1 tablespoon fresh basil, minced
2 teaspoons bourbon
1 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste

Preparation:
Combine all ingredients except for the tilapia fillets in a resealable plastic bag. Turn to mix and add tilapia fillets. Seal and refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat grill. Pour marinade into a saucepan.

Bring marinade to a low boil and remove from heat. Grill tilapia fillets for about 3 minutes per side over a high heat. When fish turns opaque remove from grill and serve with a few spoonfuls of marinade drizzled over top.

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Markets Matter!

If you are a foodie you know your Top Chef, but you may not always have the time to check out the blogs. I had a few moments this morning before starting a crazy paced afternoon and I happened upon a great blog by Gail Simmons commenting on sustainable farming and supporting your local farmers.

"Food & Wine launched Grow for Good in December 2006, a campaign to raise $1 million to benefit Farm to Table, a national initiative dedicated to supporting local farms and encouraging sustainable agriculture."

Grow for Good is over but Farm to Table is a great resource to finding local markets & farmers. Support your local farmers, there is some great farmers market in your city especially right now mid-summer. The food is cheaper, tastes better and you help someone earn a living wage. Not to mention the flowers are cheaper and beautiful too :)

Oh! I just found this great resource on FoodRoutes.org for Finding Good Food , basically farmers markets, Food Co-ops, Restaurants, U-Pick Farms, everything to help you make smart choices about where you spend your food dollars.

Okay I got sidetracked and I realized that it is the 150 year anniversary of Pike's Place Market. Sigh. I loved that place, its seafood and flowers were my favorite. Getting coffee on a chilly day and looking at the Puget Sound over the traffic of 99..ok I'm getting sad. Visit it in person if you get chance (go on a weekday, its crazy on the weekends).

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Mailed Goodness

I am thinking of sending a great foodie friend a pie from her favorite bakery in NY, Babycakes. Its vegan and their frosting is so perfectly sweetened creamy good. She just moved back to Michigan from there and I know she missing NY immensly. Being vegan is tough, but being vegan in northern michigan is worse.

Every place that I have lived in always has little foodie stores that are special only to those places. Here is a few that are my favorites that have mail-order! yeay!

BabyCakes, New York:
Their Red Velvet Cupcake is amazing.
Apple Pie that is wheat, dairy, soy, egg, sugar free!
I don't know how they do it. $30

CowChip Cookies, Seattle:
Get a Custom Box with at least one of every flavor.
My favorites are the Lemon, Snickerdoodle and of course
the classic chocolate chip. $30

Garrett's Popcorn, Chicago:
Many of times have a snuck (is that how its spelled) sneaked?
Either way I have taken the Cheese/Caramel popcorn
mix into movie theatres on several occasion. It's cheaper
and takes sooo much better. Well cheaper if you get it in Chicago.
$50 / 2 gallons

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Homemade Butter!

While working out yesterday I ran into this fantastic recipe for homemade butter in the The New York Times Magazine. Mr.S LOVES a little slab of cold butter on warm bread. So I thought I would try it out to see if we can taste the difference (which I'm sure we will). It's been so hot these past couple of days that I didn't think I should make it because the temperature might effect the consistency. But now that it is cooler today I am going to give it a go. Yum...I might bake some fresh baguettes to go with it as well..oh..damn that recipe book is packed. Just butter then. Enjoy!

UPDATE: Holy Crap is that butter good. It melts on contact with warm bread and taste so golden. But the article was right. Pretty soon you want to buy really good bread to go with it. You need to try this. I think I am going to keep doing this so I have it on hand for bread. Its expensive to make but worth it. Butter will become precious to you, which is probably good considering its not great for your heart.

Ingredients:
6 cups organic heavy cream
1 pinch Salt (optional)

1. Pour the cream into the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk. Tightly cover the top of the bowl with plastic wrap and start mixer on medium-high speed. The cream will go through the whipped stage, get fuller and then change color from off-white to pale yellow. (5-8minutes)

2. When it starts looking pebbly, its almost done. After another minute the butter will seperate from the liquid and start splashing the plastic wrap. Now stop the mixer.

3. Set stainer over a bowl. Pour contents of mixer into stainer and let the liquid (buttermilk) drain through. Grab another small bowl and strain the buttermilk again through a fine-mesh sieve; set aside.


4. Keeping the butter in the first strainer, knead it to consolidate the remaining liquid and fat and expel the rest of the buttermilk into the bowl. Knead until the texture is dense and creamy (5mins.) Refrigerate the buttermilk from both bowls.

5. Mix salt into the butter, if you want. Transfer to an airtight container and refrigerate. Makes about 2cups of butter and buttermilk. Also try folding in chopped smoked salmon or dill. You will be suprised at how great smoked salmon butter is. Photos to come later today.


This recipe is by Daniel Patterson, chef and owner Coi in San Franciso. This restaurant looks amazing! Too bad I missed this on my way through San Franciso, alas another time.

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Vignette Wine Country Sodalicious

I just happened across this bottle on a photo on some random flickr page.
The packaging looked great I'd never seen it before...so I did a little research.
It's wine soda! Vignette Wine Country Soda are non-alcoholic soda featured as Chardonnay and Pinot Noir sweetened only with varietal wine grape juice from California vineyards. Yum. They are available here for $35 a pop (well a 12-pack mix).

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