- Flame Body Spray
- Bacon Explosion
- Absinthe
- Scharffen Berger's plant closing
- Small Plate Movement
- Dry Soda
- SUBWAY texts
Friday, January 30, 2009
Foodspiration is Twittering!
Foodspiration is Twittering . . . follow Foodspiration at twitter.com. Some of our recent tweets:
Labels:
fun stuff
Monday, January 26, 2009
Scottish Scones Made in A Skillet- Scone Recipe #2
Justin oiled the skillet and I followed the instructions at first: 3 min undisturbed on the first side (okay I checked a little bit). Then I flipped for 2-3 minutes, checking frequently to prevent burning. This is where it began to puff up!
Labels:
cooking
Friday, January 23, 2009
Our Favorites at Fancy Foods 2009
Last Monday, we attended the 2009 Fancy Foods Show in San Francisco at Moscone Center. If you haven't been to this show, it is a great way to sample new and interesting upscale products and foods--for a reasonable admission price of $35.00.
We wanted to share 10 things that we thought were inspirational and interesting at the show.
Number One: Bee Raw Varietal Honey
This single varietal honey is beautifully packaged in simple jars or in hand-corked curated flights. You won't find "wildflower" honey here . . . the Bee Raw folks are particular at calling out the specific floral source for each honey. We liked the cheese complementing honey flight shown here:
Number Two: Golden Star White Jasmine Sparkling Tea
This elegantly bottled tea is made from tea sweetened with cane juice and mildly fermented. The result is a non-alcoholic (~0.5% alcohol by volume) lightly sparkling beverage with the perfect balance of sweetness and delicate flavor of jasmine that bubbles the palate. It is perfect to pair with cheese, seafood, greens and fruit.
Number Three: Dulcet Spicy Ketchup

. . . and Maya Kaimal Spicy Ketchup
Ketchup takes on another culinary dimension with these new flavors. All of these ketchups had delightfully complex profiles with Maya Kaimal's addition of Indian spices and caramelized onions and Dulcet's Sweet Orange Chile Ketchup, Peppery Moroccan Spice Ketchup, and Mild Indian Curry Ketchup.
Number Four: Honibe Honey Drops
"Honey you can hold" is the tagline of this innovative product from Canada. Made of 100% honey and nothing else, this company has cleverly dried honey into this lovely honeycomb shape allowing you to drop it directly into your tea.
Number Five: Fire & Flavor Maple Grilling Planks for Cheese
We love the idea of "planking" brie cheese. In the same way you soak cedar planks to grill salmon, these maple planks are perfectly sized to bring a smoky flavor to cheddar, brie and other cheeses. We also liked the more flexible cedar grilling papers to infuse your meat, vegetables, seafood or fruit with flavor.
Number Six: Fentiman's Botanically Brewed Sodas
These sodas are botanically brewed-aka fermented for seven days. The results is a delicious selection of flavors from a non-alcoholic Shandy to an English favorite Dandelion and Burdock to the very popular Ginger Beer.
Number Seven: Essential Cane Flavored Sugars
In the same way we have seen infused salts, these sugars are naturally flavored to spice up your sugar. Our favorites were green chili and habenero which we were told are wonderful on chocolate ice cream. Sounds good to us!
Number Eight: Gingerhaus Kit
This gets my "Inner Martha" award for bringing something that can be difficult to the masses. "Have you ever had a gingerbread house collapse?" is what the creator at the booth asked me. I have! and it is disastrous and ever so disappointing. With this kit, you bake your gingerbread onto a paper backing that has tabs. The tabs fit your baked sides into a cardboard structure, eliminating the need for royal icing as glue and giving your house some structure to prevent collapse.
Now you can get right to the decorating! I would imagine that this sturdy structure would allow you to keep this gingerbread house year to year. I'm a fan! Other designs are in the works for you to create an entire village.
Number Nine: New Dry Soda and Vignette Wine Country Soda Flavors
These get the "Most Improved" Awards for their second round of new flavors being even better than the first. Dry Soda's Juniper Berry is a refreshing non-alcoholic take on gin--which is so popular right now and the vanilla bean is a lighter take on cream soda. Vignette Wine Country Soda introduced a Rosé to their line of flavors--perhaps the nicest of all.
Number Ten: Eat Whatever Breath Freshener
This novel product freshens your breath from the inside out. With mints for your mouth and "jellies" or gel capsules of organic peppermint and parsley oils for your tummy, you'll have fresh breath in no time. And after 6 hours of eating cheese, chocolate and many other intensely flavored foods, I really needed this!
We wanted to share 10 things that we thought were inspirational and interesting at the show.
Number One: Bee Raw Varietal Honey
Number Two: Golden Star White Jasmine Sparkling Tea

Number Three: Dulcet Spicy Ketchup
. . . and Maya Kaimal Spicy Ketchup
Number Four: Honibe Honey Drops

Number Five: Fire & Flavor Maple Grilling Planks for Cheese

Number Six: Fentiman's Botanically Brewed Sodas

Number Seven: Essential Cane Flavored Sugars
Number Eight: Gingerhaus Kit
Now you can get right to the decorating! I would imagine that this sturdy structure would allow you to keep this gingerbread house year to year. I'm a fan! Other designs are in the works for you to create an entire village.
Number Nine: New Dry Soda and Vignette Wine Country Soda Flavors

Number Ten: Eat Whatever Breath Freshener

Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Breaking News: Mother's Cookies to Return to Shelves in June!
but...
Serious Eats just reported that Kelloggs will be relaunching Mother's cookies to the West Coast in June. The cookies that are coming back:
- Circus Animals- YES!!!!!
- Iced Oatmeal cookies-DOUBLE YES!!!
- Parade Animal cookies
- Chocolate Chip
- Coconut Cocadas
- Macaroons
- Taffy Sandwich cookies
- English Tea cookies- HOORAY!!!
- Double Fudge Sandwich cookies
- Vanilla Crème Sandwich cookies
- Iced Lemon cookies
Labels:
food products
Sunday, January 18, 2009
The Search for the Perfect Scone: The Cream Scone Recipe
This is the first of three recipes I am trying: the cream scone. And it is going to be a tough one to beat because it is WONDERFUL! This lovely recipe is made with heavy cream, butter, flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs and salt (click here to get it from Martha's website). I love this recipe because it is a one bowl recipe! You do have to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. You can do this a few different ways: with two butter knives, with a pastry blender, or with the food processor.
And they are passionate about Blenheim apricots. Blenheim apricots bruise easily and aren't available in stores as a result. They were originally used for dried apricots but many of the original orchards have been built on and now they are considered endangered by Slow Food USA. The flavor of a Blenheim is absolutely delicious- how do I know? Because a tree grows at a neighbor's house next to my parents' house and my mom made jam from it! I grew up on this exquisite jam and it is all I have ever known for apricot jam.
So, this is expensive jam but it is really, really good and unless you know my mom and can get some of hers, I recommend trying this. They sell the jam online if you don't live in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Verdict on Jam number 1: Equally outstanding and wonderfully compatible with these scones.
Stayed tuned for two more scone recipes and three more jams!
Labels:
cooking
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
I (Really) Heart Food T-Shirts
Here's one for the food scientists . . . I found this t-shirt on Jim Dandy's Haberdashery Cafe Press site. If you're not familiar with Cafe Press this site allows you to upload your original designs and produce t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers and more. You can print them for your own enjoyment or set up a shop to sell your designs. Maybe you'll see some Foodspiration logo wear sometime soon?
"Maillard browning" is the result of the Maillard reaction, wouldn't you know? When foods turn brown it is usually via three principle routes: enzymatic browning, caramelization, and Maillard browning. The classic example of enzymatic browning is when a fruit or vegetable is cut or bruised and the enzyme polyphenol oxidase is allowed to mix with the other contents of plant cells and polymerizes phenolic substrates into brownish pigments. In carmelization brown pigments are formed by the breakdown of sugars alone under very high heat--think about when you flame the granulated sugar on top of that creme brulee and the sugar melts and browns. In Maillard browning amino acids (from a protein source) and reducing sugars (many of the sugars we are familiar with like fructose and glucose with the notable exception of sucrose, i.e. table sugar) combine under somewhat elevated temperatures and then form an amazing myraid of the brown colors and flavors that we know and love. For me the elegance of the Maillard reaction (actually many reactions) is how simply it starts and then proceeds through a few key intermediates (Amadori and Schiff) to a lend the delicious complexity of flavor to baked bread, roasted coffee, or grilled beef. Think about how bread, coffee, or beef would taste with out the bake, roast, or grill flavors that emerge when we cook or process those foods.
Celebrate the Maillard browning that is all around us!
Labels:
fun stuff
Thursday, January 8, 2009
I Heart Food T-Shirts
Well, of course this is where sprinkles come from... Ok, I treated myself to this t-shirt on Threadless.com. This a great site for unusual t-shirts designed by and voted on by the Threadless community. They have quite a few food-related t-shirts but this is the first one I have purchased. I love it!
Do you have a favorite food t-shirt?
Labels:
fun stuff
Friday, January 2, 2009
Al's Breakfast, a Minneapolis Classic
Al's Breakfast is a Minneapolis breakfast staple located just off the University of Minnesota campus in the Dinkytown neighborhood. Don't be fooled by the sign in the window as this is the sole branch of the restaurant and here since 1950. My brother and I often make a run to Al's when I am in town and this Christmas holiday trip was no exception. NB: If you are in Minneapolis and want to search out this spot don't just type "Al's" into your GPS as you may be sent to Al's Place, which is NOT where you want to go unless you want to find yourself across the street from one of Minneapolis' downtown strip clubs.
Al's Breakfast has a lot of fans and has even won a James Beard Award for America's Classics in 2004, however, this place is about as down to earth as you can get. One of the Al's endearing features is its cramped space. It has only 14 red vinyl stools positioned along a long counter. Typically, a single line of bodies forms only inches behind the row of seated customers and stretches out the door (and on the weekends down street).
At Al's the menu is unchanging and the waitstaff is no nonsense. If you use a cell phone you may be yelled at. You will be directed to your seat by your position in line. Even after you have a spot it may not be yours for long as when when additional spaces open up you may be asked to slide down to fit groups of people together. If you are a "single" you may be lucky enough to jump a few people in line in order to keep the seats filled.
The food is prepared short-order style. Everything on the menu is delicious and you can find whatever you are looking for be it carbs (the pancakes and waffles rock) or be it protein (the various cheesy egg dishes boarder on the sublime). A short stack of "wally blues"--two walnut/blueberry buttermilk pancakes--can certainly satisfy, but I personally favor the blackberry buckwheat pancakes when I am going in that direction. However, my brother and I both went eggs.
When I'm eating eggs at Al's I favor the "Spike". This dish is a two egg cheddar scramble with generous amounts of garlic and covered in mushrooms. I get liberal with the hot sauce and then don't look back. My brother always orders the "Jose" with a third egg. The Jose has the hash browns built right in as the base for poached eggs, melted cheese, and salsa. While the grill is open for all to view, you may not want to watch how much oil gets poured on the hash browns as I have know this to have been concerning to some.
Al's isn't exactly a place you can hang out after your meal and digest. While the staff will always keep your coffee filled, you'll quickly start to feel the piecing stares of the next customer in the back of your head. Since the hungry mob is literally only a few inches away it is sufficient motivation to move on, belly full, to the rest of your day.
As I said, Al's has many longtime fans and even its own reference on Wikipedia (entry on Al's Breakfast). My close friend and once Dinkytown roommate Vince is another "Al"-ophile. Vince wrote in inaugural issue of his zine Breakfast an article entitled "Getting Jiggy At Al's Breakfast" (does this title date it for you?, i.e. to sometime back in the late '90s). Zines are like amped-up blogs in print . . . small-circulation, non-commercial, creative works. When Vince got Breakfast going, the weblog format really hadn't caught on, but his "zine about your favorite meal" certainly inspired me, especially since I once got to contribute under the pseudonym Dr. Food.
Lovers of Al's Breakfast Unite!
Labels:
Minnesota,
restaurants
Thursday, January 1, 2009
Wishing You A Delicious New Year!
We are wishing you a glorious new year filled with happiness, love and lots of foodspiration!
We hope you are enjoying the beginning of this wonderful new year!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)