Showing posts with label food. Show all posts
Showing posts with label food. Show all posts

March 1, 2010

I Heart Art PDX + My Day with Visitors from Etsy.com

This past Friday was the first I Heart Art gathering here in Portland, set up as a meet 'n greet networking event for locals to meet each other and learn more about the group. There was quite a bit of networking going on between the 500+ attendees!

If you're unfamiliar with I Heart Art, it's basically a big collaboration between Etsy.com, PNCA (Pacific Northwest College of Art), the PDX Etsy team (sellers on Etsy), and other local groups that want to offer resources and business opportunities to students, Etsy sellers, and the general public. There will be FREE monthly professional development workshops, one of which I'll be teaching in August!
  
The day after the meet 'n greet event, Vanessa and Morgan (from Etsy.com headquarters in New York) met with Christine Claringbold and me at the Trillium Artisan store to discuss a potential partnership with the Trillium Artisans Etsy team. I'm super excited about the prospects of this collaboration! Christine outlined some great goals that will help our team enormously.
 
After our meeting, I brought Morgan and Vanessa over to Sword + Fern, which is a rad brick & mortar boutique run by fellow-Trillium member, Emily Baker. I couldn't stop photographing the rainbow-colored origami decorations she has around her shop! Emily has tons of stunning artifacts in every nook and cranny of her store, but I kept being drawn back to the bright colored paper.
For lunch, I brought the ladies over to the food carts on 12th and Hawthorne for some crepes. Really, what trip to Portland would be complete without eating at food carts? They're all over our city, and everyone has a favorite. My crepe had figs, prosciutto, chevre and honey. So good!
Spending the day with Morgan and Vanessa was such a great opportunity to learn more about Etsy's goals with I Heart Art, and to share some of my personal feelings on things. I feel like my voice was heard, which is sometimes hard in a group of over 4 million Etsy.com users. Since the majority of my business income comes from my Etsy shop, it's extra important to stay in touch with their company. I can't wait to see what else is on the horizon!

Read more...

October 16, 2009

There and Back Again


Boy, has it been a busy week. We just got back from our trip to Massachusetts, and I haven't quite processed the mounds of work waiting for us at home. Today is Sean's birthday, so it's a good excuse to take it easy.


Speaking of taking it easy, I hurt my back on our second day out (re-aggravating an old injury in a pretty severe manner), and I've been walking around with this awesome cane every since. Pretty great. I hate feeling crippled, but I should be back to normal in a month or so.


Portland has pretty much everything, as far as I'm concerned, except for a few foodie favorites. We made sure to each a bunch of Italian-style subs while in Boston, plus some fantastic pork and veggie burritos from Anna's Taqueria, Indian food (I had goat vindaloo for the first time!) from Punjabi Dhaba, and the obligatory Dunkin' Donuts iced coffee. If you find yourself in New England and haven't enjoyed any of these simple delights, please try them immediately.


I'm thrilled that we were able to make the wedding favors for my sister's wedding, and we spent our first afternoon filling them with candy and curling ribbons. The musical note heart design was the groom's original artwork, which we etched onto these fantastic recycled glass bottles. The M&M's and chocolate mints were a huge hit with all the guests!


We ended up making too many bottles for the number of guests that could attend, so we'll be adding these to our shop for Valentine's Day next year. They'd make great bud vases, or vials for holding decorative sand or super-mini terrariums! I think I'll have to keep a couple for myself...

Read more...

June 25, 2009

Pepper Jelly

This is one of my favorite little snacks: crackers, really sharp cheddar cheese, and spicy red pepper jelly (this is actually hot cranberry jelly from Whole Foods, which is also really good).

The first time I tried pepper jelly was at a wine tasting near my parents' house. They served it with Chevre goat cheese, which was also amazing. I just happen to always have cheddar in the house, and I like it just as much. If you've never tried red pepper jelly, then you should get some as an excuse to throw yourself a wine and cheese party. Do it!

Read more...

June 15, 2009

Banana Ginger Candy

Sean and I really like shopping at a variety of supermarkets. The most fun is by far the local Asian grocery store, Fubonn. We go there for curry and Pad Thai ingredients, cheap meat and produce, awesome soy sauce, and at least one thing we've never had before.

The last item is usually from the candy aisle, and it's not always a winner. Once, we got icing-coated cookies that looked like cruller donuts, but turned out to be jaw-breakingly hard and stale. Not everything is that bad though. We've really enjoy the sesame and peanut candies, which are similar to peanut brittle.

Recently, we discovered banana ginger candy, which wasn't quite what we expected, but I totally love it! These little rectangles of sesame numminess look like they're going to be crispy (like the brittle), but they're actually soft and chewie. The banana appears to be the binder that holds little chunks of ginger, peanuts and sesame seeds together. It's not too sweet, and it's incredibly satisfying. I highly recommend it!

Next, we'd like to try the candied squid in a bag.

Read more...

June 8, 2009

Now I'm Kinda Old


I had a lovely day of relaxing yesterday, and I accomplished my goal of not sending any emails. It was fabulous!

Instead of being glued to my workstation like every other day of the week, I read a few chapters of A Feast for Crows by George R.R. Martin, played some Marvel Ultimate Alliance for the new Xbox 360 I got, plus some free demos (I can not wait to get Ninja Gaiden II!!). I did some cleaning around the house just because I wanted to, which feels so much nicer than cleaning because I really have to. I played with the cat.

[Photo by Blonde Chicken Boutique]

In the evening, Sean and I both took over our little kitchen to make strawberry shortcake and strawberry jam. I made the jam, he made the shortcake. We listened to '90s grunge music, which brought back lots of happy birthday memories for me. The Smashing Pumpkins Lull EP has two songs that talk about June, and I used to imagine that Rhinoceros was my own personal birthday song.

I wanted to take pictures of the canning process, but everything was so chaotic, sticky, and dark (I didn't want to use the flash), that I decided to share other people's great jam-making pictures instead. Click the images to visit my friends' Flickr pages--they both have tons of other great photos. Enjoy!

[Photo by Leah Pellegrini]

Read more...

June 6, 2009

Birthday Decompression

So, tomorrow is my birthday! I don't have any real plans this year, so I'm taking the day off. Yes, you heard me right. I'm taking the day off. I'm not going to respond to any emails. I'm not going to edit the photos I took today of new products. Instead, I'm going to read, make strawberry jam, listen to Daft Punk Alive, and play video games on my brand new (used) Xbox 360! This is a dream come true.

Sean even spent today cleaning the apartment and folding laundry so I won't have to do any of that tomorrow. We went out for dinner last night with our friend, Michael, and the shiny snail above is the remnants of my lamb chop meal. Montage sure knows how to make leftovers pretty!

I'm going to turn 27 calmly, and quietly. There are a lot of things that I haven't done yet, that I'd imagined I would have done by this point in my life. It's interesting to reflect and see how different my path in life was from my expectations. When I was little, I certainly never imagined I'd own my own internet business! Crazy! I thought I'd be a homemaker and children's book illustrator. But I'm glad I've taken this route. And I'm excited to have so many things ahead of me!

Read more...

February 26, 2009

Cannolis can fix anything


Ever since my good friend, Caitlin, gave me some marscapone cheese she couldn't use, I've been searching for cannoli shells to make some of these creamy treats! I finally found some at Pastaworks, and I rushed home to whip some up. I'm pretty sure I could have found a recipe for the shells, but I just didn't have the time. I modified the filling recipe on the box to include marscapone as well as the standard ricotta, and these completely hit the spot.

You should be able to get your own shells from a local bakery or specialty food store. The filling is super-ridiculously easy to make, and you can still fill them without a pastry bag. You just spoon some into a plastic sandwich bag, twist the open end of the bag closed, and snip off the tip of the other end to create a spout. Garnish with chocolate curls, dried fruit, or powdered cocoa (like I did). Enjoy!

Read more...

February 10, 2009

Happy customers make me happy!

I got a fantastic email the other day from a man who received some of my mustache rocks glasses as a holiday gift. Not only did he tell me how much he likes the glasses, but he also sent me a screenshot of the glass in action as his avatar at allrecipes.com!

At first I thought, "cute picture!" Then I thought, "wait, I love allrecipes.com!" Then I realized, "the cool guy who writes the cocktail blog at All Recipes likes my glasses!" It was a great day.

I love to cook, and I like cooking interesting things. I don't have an overabundance of cookbooks, since we tend to move a lot and I like to purge the belongings that haven't been used much. Online recipe databases are the way of the future! They're great to browse for ideas (with great photos!), and reading other cook's reviews has become essential. All Recipes even has a great search feature where you can input the ingredients you want in a recipe, plus the ones you don't want included! Brilliant.

[Don't forget to enter to win a free pair of high-ball glasses! You have until Valentine's Day, which is the 14th. Instructions for entry are here.]

Read more...

December 23, 2008

Pumpkin Flower


Finally got to bake this weekend! Also finally got to use the cool silicone baking dish my mom got me for my birthday (back in June)!

This pumpkin flower cooked a little strangely, since it was a double recipe of pumpkin bread (with 3/4 of the oil substituted with unsweetened apple sauce), and it took way to look to get the center to set. It's a little chewy on the edges, and it cracked down the center when I removed it from the pan. It's supposed to be prettier from the underside, but this is the way it worked.

I'm just happy that we have time to cook this week, since we were eating a lot of take-out and frozen dinners last week.

Read more...

December 3, 2008

Roadkill Badger Sandwiches


I got an amusing Google alert this morning (on the topic of "Badger Sandwich", which apparently is a real foodstuffs) for this blog post about folks who eat roadkill. No photos, unfortunately (is it really?), except for some excellent quotes:

Fergus is supposedly known as the Roadkill Chef in Europe. He is a self proclaimed vegetarian that only eats meat if it has been killed on the road by someone else.
Back when I first became a vegetarian (when I was 11), I thought this would be a noble way to go. I didn't want to be the person responsible for ending the life of another being. But roadkill and life-or-death situations were totally up for grabs. Luckily, I never had to survive by killing and eating something myself, or scraping something off the road.

If I ever run into a squooshed hedgehog though, I'll keep this recipe in mind:
Hedgehog spaghetti carbonara (serves four)

500g spaghetti, 30ml olive oil, 250g lean hedgehog, 1 medium onion (chopped), 125ml water, 60ml dry white wine, 4 eggs, 60ml double cream, 100g grated parmesan cheese · chop hedgehog into small chunks

beat eggs and cream together in a bowl. Add half the Parmesan cheese

put pasta in boiling water

put onions and hedgehog chunks in pan with olive oil on medium heat until onions are almost clear

add wine and reduce heat

drain pasta when cooked, combine it with egg, cream and cheese mix

add meat, onions and wine without draining fat and mix thoroughly

garnish with remaining Parmesan. Serve immediately
[quotes from http://mrbaggins1.livejournal.com/7474.html, Badger Pastel Painting by http://JeaneNevarez.etsy.com]

Read more...

November 28, 2008

Thankful

I'm thankful for all my amazing friends and family who have encouraged me to take risks and stick to it when things were tough.

I'm thankful for Tea Time with the PDX Etsy crew, since nothing is better than getting out of the house once in a while to chat and snack with friends. Tea Time has helped keep me sane when life was really stressful!

I'm thankful for my cat, Rupert, who is such an awesome guy to have around. Even when he's knocking things on the floor or head-butting me at 3am because he felt like snuggling. I love spending time with him, and letting him distract me from work once in a while.

I'm thankful to anyone who's ever shared food with us, whether it was dinner at our house or theirs. What is life without good people to eat with?

I'm thankful for my husband, Sean, who not only puts up with my crazy ideas and lofty goals, but he also helps me achieve them.

I'm thankful for our great home and friendly neighbors.

I'm thankful for all the opportunities we've had in the past year, business-wise and personally.

I'm thankful for Cooks Illustrated for putting out amazing cookbooks that have taught me how to cook better food. And for our 7-gallon stock pot that we use for brewing beer and brining turkeys.

Read more...

November 24, 2008

Brining is the new Frying


I've recently started eating meat again, after 15 years of strict vegetarianism. This is going to be my first Thanksgiving as an adult where I'll be eating the turkey! Sean and I are celebrating the holiday with another couple who lives in our apartment complex, since none of us have relatives close by. There will be so much food, since we all love to cook, and I have the honor of cooking the turkey.

The New Best Recipe cookbook has a great section on roasting turkeys, and I plan on following their advice to the letter. The first step is to brine the turkey, which sounds daunting, but is apparently essential. We've brined almost all the meat we've been cooking, and I gotta say, it's totally worth the salt and the planning ahead.

[This sexy turkey hat and tea cozy are available as a knitting pattern from angelacatirina.etsy.com. Check out the legs that double as a chin-strap! There's also a crochet version.]

Read more...

November 5, 2008

Rick Rolling with Cakes

Holy bejeebus! I just discovered a new way to Rick Roll someone: with a cake! This website has a small gallery with instructions for achieving the feat.

Basically, you decorate a cake with Rick Roll on it. Then, you take a round box (just larger than your real cake) and decorate that to look completely unassuming. After your victim blows out the candles on the fake cake, you get to Rick Roll them by removing the box! How awesome is that?!?

Read more...

August 22, 2008

Mustache: The Ultimate Accessory

I just had an incredibly busy past two days, due to some great blog features (including Design*Sponge, USA Today, and Modish!!) so I haven't planned out much to blog about. In case you're wondering, this Mustache Pint Glass is what all the fuss is about. I've been making nothing but Mustache Pint Glasses for the past two days, but I have no complaints. I bought myself a taro bubble tea and a new bike helmet to celebrate today!

The only exciting thing (besides all this great publicity!) that's happened all week, is that I've started eating meat again. That's right. After 15 years, I've fallen off the wagon. I feel pretty bad about it, since I quit eating meat in the first place because I thought it was wrong for another animal to die just for a small meal of mine. I still believe this, which makes it difficult to change my stance on things, except that I'm tired of missing out on all the culinary marvels of the world!



I'm a humongous fan of Anthony Bourdain (tv, novels, non-fiction and all), and perhaps I can credit him for most of my new way of thinking of food. I want to experience bliss in the form of every amazing meal I can have. I don't want to live my life without the benefits of enjoying it fully!

Last weekend, I went to the Portland Farmer's Market and sampled as many interesting things as I could find. I had yak sausage, smoked salmon jerky and hot green bean pickles. I tried things I'd never even considered putting in my mouth before! It was a life-altering experience, and I don't regret a second of it.

My husband, a visiting friend and I brought home a buffalo brisket (and venison pate, among other goodies!), which we proceeded to grill with zucchini and potatoes for a delectable dinner. This video is a good example of my perfect afternoon: lounging in the backyard with a grill covered in farm-fresh food, watching the neighborhood stray cats.

Read more...

August 18, 2008

Cake Wrecks


I got stuck on the Cake Wrecks blog again today, and almost couldn't pull myself away. Some of these professionally-made baked atrocities are so funny, you may forget to feel sorry for the person who bought them!

Although some of the cakes are just plain horrible for their "wtf?" designing (or total lack of design), I especially appreciate the misuse of quotation marks, horrible spelling, and lost-in-translation instructions.

Read more...

August 11, 2008

My Velvet Elvis Milkshake

Question: What's better than a chocolate milkshake full of vitamins and minerals?
Answer: A peanut butter and banana chocolate milkshake full of vitamins and minerals!

Amanda's Velvet Elvis Milkshake

1 cup rice milk (or soy or regular milk)
1 big plop of chunky peanut butter (probably about 2-3 Tablespoons)
1 scoop of chocolate Slim-Fast powder
1/2 tsp. cocoa powder
1/2 of a frozen banana, pre-cut into small rounds

Blend thoroughly on a low blender setting. Enjoy the frostiness!

I drink these milkshakes all the time for breakfast, as an afternoon snack, or after a work-out. I keep a container of cut up bananas in my freezer all the time for this shake, and those big canisters of chocolate Slim-Fast powder are totally worth it. I'm sure you could substitute your own favorite health-food powder, and you could leave out the peanut butter if you really want it to be low-cal, but who really wants that? It's also good with fresh strawberries of maraschino cherries.

[Frosty Chocolate Milkshake Pin, $6 by CreamyPear who also makes other yummy-looking dessert jewelry!]

Read more...

July 30, 2008

Best Recipes

If you're looking for a good cookbook that has a little bit of everything, then you can't go wrong with The New Best Recipe cookbook by the editors of Cook's Illustrated Magazine. Not only does this book have detailed explanations on the hows and whys of every single recipe, but it also contains product reviews for cooking gadgets, tools and ingredients.

I wish I'd purchased this book instead of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything, since Bittman has some bizarre food preferences (I recall a pasta recipe where he clearly states his dislike of cheese on top of pasta) and he gives sparse prep instructions. The Best Recipe folks might have slightly more demanding recipes, but at least they give you really good reasons why you should do it their way! I may not be learning all the chemistry involved in making muffins, but at least I understand why I'm adding sour cream to them.

Speaking of muffins, these photos are of some blueberry raspberry muffins I made recently after berry-picking on Sauvie Island, here in Portland. I doubled the recipe so I had some muffin mini-loaves and a mini-bundt cake, which all turned out thick, dense and amazing!

Read more...

July 21, 2008

Veggie-Beef Stroganoff

I make this all the time, and it's really good! Even my meat-loving husband loves this recipe. It's much easier than it looks--just a little multi-tasking involved. I made it up for the most part, with a little bit of help from an old Pennsylvania Dutch cookbook I have. I think this may actually be a "tetrazzini", but it's good no matter what you call it! Note: if you'd like to make this with real meat, feel free to substitute away! Don't forget to drain your ground beef after cooking it, if that's what you choose.


1/2 oz dried flavorful mushrooms like porcini (use fresh if you can find them!!)
1/2 bag wide egg noodles
1 bag Morningstar Farms Griller Crumbles (or Boca equivalent)
1 shallot (or about 1/4 cup onion, or less), diced finely
1 small/medium clove garlic
3 Tbl. butter
about 1 cup frozen peas (whatever looks good when you're pouring it)
8 oz. sour cream

Put a large pot of water on to boil. Salt the water generously when it comes to a boil, just before adding noodles.

Resuscitate mushrooms by immersing in a bowl of very hot tap water for
about 5-10 minutes, or until soft (not soggy). Drain, rinse any grit
off them, and squeeze water out. Chop and set aside. (I dice these
finely so they aren't chewy and noticeable, but you can cut them
however you'd like.) You can save the water for stock, or pour add it to the boiling water.

Melt the butter in a pan on medium-low. Saute the shallot and garlic
until they are lightly browned. Put butter and shallot/garlic aside in
a bowl. Use the saute pan to heat up the frozen Crumbles on medium
heat with a lid, stirring occasionally. When the Crumbles are heated,
mix in the mushrooms and cook until browned.

Meanwhile, boil the noodles until they're thoroughly cooked but not
soggy--this takes longer than normal pasta. Throw the peas in when the
noodles are almost cooked, so they'll be hot--they don't really need
to cook long. Strain when finished.

Transfer the noodles and peas back to the large pot. Pour the butter,
shallot and garlic over the noodles, then mix in the Crumbles mixture.
Stir in the sour cream. (I tend to buy the 16 oz tub of sour cream,
and sometimes it seems to need a little more than half. Use enough so
that it's creamy and everything is coated thoroughly.) Garnish with
freshly ground pepper.

This is enough for 2 people to share with some leftovers, but I would
double this recipe for 4-6 people. You can always adjust the
ingredient quantities to your tastes, since I don't really measure
anything when I'm cooking this. It would be good with more mushrooms too, if you have them.

[No Meat Magnet courtesy of Sick on Sin]

Read more...

June 20, 2008

Urban Edibles


This was sent to me by my great, eco-conscience mother-in-law. Urban Edibles is a website devoted to sharing natural food sources like nut and fruit trees, berry patches and wild herbs with the community of Portland, OR. The site is made up of user-contributed sources, so you can submit plants that you've found or own, with harvesting tips or other details. Just remember to get permission before picking fruit on someone else's property!

The database aims to bring the community together by encouraging food foragers to converse with property owners, ultimately making use of the natural resources in our own neigborhoods. You can search by category for a specific plant, or using the Google map on the site, so it's easy to plan a trip even if you don't know the area that well. I can't wait to go on my first fruit-scouting mission!

http://urbanedibles.org/

Read more...

June 4, 2008

DIY Coffeesicles


Here's an awesome recipe for Vietnamese-style coffee popsicles! I found it via the Craft: Magazine Twitter page.

If you don't have a fancy popsicle mold, you can make a granita out of the coffee mixture by pouring it into a shallow tray or baking dish, and letting it freeze for 2 hours so that ice crystals have started to form on the surface. Scrape the ice crystals around with a fork, and return to the freezer for another 30 minutes. Repeat the scraping and freezing 3 or 4 more times, until it's all fluffy and frozen. Serve immediately!

You could also serve it before it's completely frozen and have a drinkable slushie icy coffee concoction. I can't wait to try this!

Read more...

  © Blogger templates The Professional Template by Ourblogtemplates.com 2008

Back to TOP