Frrrrench Fooods

The past few days I've found myself more than usually obsessed with Thomas Keller. And who isn't? He has one of the greatest restaurants in the world (The French Laundry), he was a consultant for one of the best food movies ever (Ratatouille) and my most favoriteist blog is based on his cookbook.
I will probably never cook his food, as it is super time-consuming and takes days to prepare a single dish. Unless it involves poached eggs.

Puppydoodles

I don't know if you guys like puppies, but I do. Especially Miniature Australian Shepard/Poodle mixes. Especially those named Josie, (as in the Steely Dan song). ESPECIALLY those that like to nomnomnom on furniture and drywall and alarm clocks...

Did I get a puppy? The answer might probably be yes.

Salmon Sadness...

Turns out, commercial salmon fishing was canceled along the West Coast this year. Although this still allows for the Copper River salmon in Alaska to be sold this season, the price has jumped dramatically to $30-$40 a pound.

Now we'll have to make the most of our salmon. I suggest filling puff pastry with a nice fillet, some homemade pesto, and some wilted arugula and garlic. Extra points for making the puff pastry pocket look like a fish.

Berries!

Lately I've been craving blueberry/lemon concoctions. And tea and scones. So let's put them together, shall we? Whole Wheat Blueberry Scones

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 3/4 cups white flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup butter (chilled, cut into pieces)
1 3/4 cups fat-free buttermilk
1 1/2 cups fresh blueberries

Juice of 1 lemon
powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 375. Mix dry ingredients. Cut butter into dry mix. Stir in buttermilk just until moistened, then stir in the blueberries. Form dough into 12 wedges. Bake for 30-35 minutes. Let cool. Mix powdered sugar into lemon juice till mixture is thick but still runny. Drizzle over scones.

Serve these with iced blueberry mint tea, and perhaps some marscapone cheese to spread on.

Crocodile and diamonds and gold, oh my!

Now, I'm not much of a Louis Vuitton girl, despite the MJ influence and the posh frenchness, and the being owned by the same company as Hennessy, etc. But have you seen the new watch collection Marc just did for them?
An entire watch face covered with pave diamonds? Black and gold and white and a clever use of the company's logo at 5'oclock? Sigh.

Mallows!

It is getting warmer out, and no one wants to turn on the oven and make their apartment all sticky-hot to make treats. So what is non-oven, non-fat, and mega-delicious? Homemade marshmallows!
There are various recipes for them, mostly involving gelatin, sugar, corn syrup, powdered sugar, vanilla and salt. Recipes are here, here and here.

Split the "batter" into portions when you're done if you want to make flavored mallows. You can use food coloring and extracts to flavor the different portions, and then either swirl them into one pan, or pour them one by one for layered treats. How about half vanilla, half earl grey?

SPAIN

Last week, I just missed the chance to purchase a 6.6 lb wheel of Senorio Montelarreina (Manchego) cheese. I have been sad all week, thinking how delicious at least a half-pound of this would have been with some quince paste.
So let's do the next best thing: make quince ratafia! Shred one quince into a jar. Add a bottle of vodka and a 1/4 cup of sugar. Let sit for a few weeks, then drain out the fruit and serve. You can use brandy, too, if you'd like. If you drink enough of it, you will forget about that 6.6 lb wheel of cheese...