winter is in the air

Lately I've been feeling a chill in my bones and a deep, intrinsic need to make soup. This is how I know winter is coming. My body memory is telling me that this chill I feel is nothing compared to what lay ahead and I am beginning to brainstorm cookie ideas. Things that are good to dip, things brushed with melted chocolate, and things that are infused with peppermint, lavender, and ginger. The planning begins...

I dream about meals, you know. Recurring dreams, they differ is length and complexity. Really, they're more variations on a theme. Until eventually all that I've been reading, scheming, and puzzling about has to come out in some sort of wild, cathartic, unifying experience of culinary output. Would you like to come over and cook something with me? Or we could bake, if you prefer. My kitchen is well stocked, and though slightly messy and rather dishevelled, you're welcome in it.

These are things I want to experiment with:
lavender/rosemary/candied ginger shortbread
molasses
consommés
fennel
mulled fruit
brulée-ing things
parsnip soup
stuffed roast chicken
osso bucco
homemade cannelloni
chocolate and cheese soufflé (though not necessarily together)
lentils
flambé
something that when assembled spells my name
layer cake

Tell me if you have tried to make any of this. Some of these things are not new to me, but rather I feel it is high time I gain greater mastery of them. Other things on this list came to me in dreams or having tasted it elsewhere and striving to replicate the taste in my own kitchen.

The other thing is, this year I promise to try out way more gluten-free baking. Joey's brother is celiac, so I think I'll see what works out well and then send him a little surprise. And given that I don't think he reads this, it probably will be a surprise!

Is there anything you think I left out? What wintery food winds your clock? What have you been waiting to try or to make again?

looking for a food photographer/partner in crime

Hey there food fanatics, family members, sisters from other misters, and those others who have stumbled upon this blog randomly...

I've been working on expanding my library of food images and increasing the profile of my food photography on this blog. But it's slow going when it's only me.

I don't know the best way to dress up my food and pose it and light it for optimal images. I have difficulty stopping mid-recipe to take process shots and I am not afraid to say that I know there are others out there who take much better photos and know a lot more about food photography.

I want you!

If you live in Edmonton and are reading this and are any good at focusing an SLR, please let me know. If you lie elsewhere, but have tips or recommendations (or could pass this along to someone you may know who lives here and is interested) as usual, I welcome all feedback.

If you would like to try out and collaborate with me, this is what I propose: an afternoon or evening of cooking, picture taking, and merriment. I'll pick the recipe and buy all the ingredients. All you have to do is show up with your gear and a willingness to get your hands a little dirty. I promise it will be fun...

Hopefully yours,

TRD

hey there sports fans

Who likes lazy summer Sundays? I know I do...

Today I plan to read the newspaper, write, eat food from the market prepared for me with love, hang out in a hammock, and then I'm going to go to the Eskimos-Alouettes football game around 5.

FYI - breakfast is scrambled eggs with mushrooms, onions, and feta cheese, fresh berries, a sweet purple pepper from the farmer's market (!), and green tea with honey. Brought to me in bed. Sigh.

I'll watch the sun set across the field into the stands on the other side of Commonwealth Stadium. They'll be packed with fans tonight, this game is quite a big match up. We'll probably grab bison burgers and old popcorn at the game.

And if it's warm enough and we feel like spending a silly amount of money for just-okay beer, we just might have a few of those too.

What do you like to eat on lazy Sundays? Or at football games? Or, for that matter, any sporting event? It's summer, we're a darn northerly place, and the summer won't last that long. Tell me your favourite summer foods. Let's record them so we can remember this time and how great things taste in season.

strawberry shortcake!!!!!!!!!!!

My Zaida's favourite dessert is strawberry shortcake. My mom used to make it occasionally when she had my grandparents and other family over for dinner. Sort of. Her version of strawberry shortcake, though not exactly loyal to the true definition, was a delicious pile of thickly sliced Sara Lee frozen pound cake with sliced strawberries and vanilla and icing sugar sweetened whipped cream. All my life I grew up thinking this was all there was to it. Deep down, though, I knew... I knew there must be a whole other world to shortcake that delved deeper into the realm of the "made from scratch".
Don't get me wrong. I love Sara Lee pound cake. It's convenient, can be served almost directly out of the freezer, and can be modified in a myriad ways for all kinds of desserts. But once I did a little digging, I found out exactly what I had been missing all those years, and learned precisely why strawberry shortcake is my Zaida's very favourite.
A friend of mine clued me in to Recipezaar, a user supported site where readers can submit recipes, rate others they have used, and offer suggestions and modifiers. My friend suggested that I search the recipe I was looking for and then scan the results for ones that had high ratings and had been tried lots of times. The one I found was for "Old Fashioned Strawberry Shortcake". It's a very simple recipe that can be whipped out (*pun intended) in relatively little time. I learned why it's called shortcake. A few basic ingredients and some handmade love and you'll be enjoy a beautiful classic dessert in no time at all.
Make sure you've got plenty of strawberries. I ate quite a few as I baked and it would have been quite sad if I didn't have enough to make the pretty border on top at the very end. I prepared everything in the afternoon and then went out to run some errands. I was able to quickly assemble it at the end of dinner and after some minor spillage (my kitchen is on a slant and a bunch of the strawberry juice went running off the bottom layer, down the side of the plate and onto the table), the cake was brought out to applause and birthday singing.
The coolest part, in my opinion, is the way the actual cake is made, before any of the assembly happens. Work flour, salt, baking powder, and butter together with your hands until it resembles a coarse meal. Form the meal into a dough ball and divide it in half. Roll each half out into a round shape the size of a spring form pan. Butter the pan and drop one of the rounds into it. Brush the top with melted butter. Place the second round directly on top of the first. Bake the two together and when they come out and cool a bit, you can take them apart and set them aside to assemble the layers. I was so excited and in a bit of a rush (with floury, buttery fingers) and so I didn't get process shots of this part, but the baker who uploaded the recipe took some great ones.

*** Caption Contest***
"Please... no more cake... it's just too delicious"