The History Quilter: Bon Appetit

Showing posts with label Bon Appetit. Show all posts

Saturday, June 20, 2015

History Quilter Podcast Episode #44 Catching Up

Happy Saturday to you all!

Yesterday I recorded and uploaded History Quilter Episode #44 Catching Up where I primarily spoke about my long term substitute assignment (don't worry it's not too long), Podcast recommendations, being a member of the Long Beach Modern Quilt Guild, a couple of great recipes and sewing projects I've completed.

You can find my latest episode on Podbean, iTunes and Stitcher Radio.

I spoke about my long term substitute assignment - here is the blog post I wrote just after I finished the assignment.

Go check out the beginning stages of the Long Beach Modern Quilt Guild website. We need the website hits!

Podcast Recommendations:

Burnt Toast by Food 52. This is a fun little podcast about random things that they don't write about on their blog/website.

Criminal. Intriguing podcast about crime. "People that have done wrong, been wronged or gotten caught somewhere in the middle".
I recommended two episodes: #15 He's Neutral and #19 Mother's Little Helper

TED Radio Hour. These are TED Talks that host Guy Roz connects together for a weekly theme and interviews some of the TED talk hosts.

I recommend The Fountain of Youth from May 22, 2015.

Frontline PBS documentary show. The episode Being Mortal from February 10, 2015 is extremely thought provoking. I listened to the audio podcast first and then watched the documentary.

Start Up from Gimlet Media. I recommend Season Two which focuses on Dating Ring.

Two great recipes:
Grilled Chicken Souvlaki from America's Test Kitchen. This is from Dinner in the Mediterranean from Season 15.

Grilled Chicken Souvlaki

Perfect Fish Tacos from Bon Appetit. Make these!

Perfect Fish Tacos

Lastly, what I've been working on:

A little basket I made with the Basket of Charms pattern from Sweet Jane's Quilting & Design.

Basket of Charms - Fresh Air by American Jane Patterns

Baby Quilt made for Kinley Mae...this was so fun! Fabrics from Joann's. Quilt pattern is Little Man by Camille Roskelley.

Phew...I need to record more often as this blog post took me forever! :)
Enjoy your Saturday,
Susan

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Buttery Goodness: Kouign-Amann

More often than not, a recipe will grab me. I might spy it on a blog or catch a glimpse on a food show and that little kernel of information somehow finds its way into my cerebral cortex and blooms. As that recipe grows in the need to be made (sending me messages: "Find me on the Internet" and "Print me out!"), I start to plan out when.

About two weeks ago I picked up the April 2014 Bon Appetit from my magazine pile and took it with me to read while waiting for an appointment.

When I got to this page, this recipe seed jumped into my brain and began to bloom.

Page 43 April 2014 Bon Appetit Magazine

I've wanted to attempt "lamination", a technique where dough is wrapped around a thick sheet of cold butter and folded, rolled, folded, rolled...etc., for ages. As described by Claire Saffitz in Bon Appetit, kouign-amann is a "sort of denser, sugar-crusted croissant made with indecent amounts of butter". She wasn't wrong.

It was "Buttery Goodness".

butter, a little sugar and a pinch of salt for the "butter block"

butter block...more of a rectangle

butter block all wrapped up and ready for the freezer

dough and butter block ready for lamination

enclosure of butter block in dough

first fold - wrapped in plastic and put into freezer/fridge for chilling time

first roll out. No oozing butter ~ a very good sign

second fold
again wrapped up in plastic and into the freezer/fridge to chill
also did this a third time

final roll out
you can see chunks of butter where I didn't fully mix it as well as I should

This is where all of the work became super fun. My older son and I were working on this project together and once he made the cuts, we could see the layers of dough where the cuts had been made.

Twelve squares

See the layers? We were gleeful at 10:45 pm when these were ready for their last 8 hours in the fridge.

These were amazing . Truly. Worth all of the effort and time. I would change two things ~ making sure to completely mix the butter before spreading on to the parchment paper to make the butter block and possibly using a little less butter. There was so much butter that it oozed out of each muffin cup and dripped on to the bottom of my new baking oven. Burning butter smoke is not the greatest at 7am.

I will make Buttery Goodness again as it was very well received. Go here to read the step by step directions.
Time to go clean my oven and start preparations for my Easter Meal tomorrow,
Ciao~
Susan

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

What I Served My Picky Eater Last Night

Do you follow the Bon Appetit blog called The Feed? I do (what a surprise) and last week they featured Karen Le Billon who just wrote French Kids Eat Everything: How Our Family Moved to France, Cured Picky Eating, Banned Snacking, and Discovered 10 Simple Rules for Raising Happy, Healthy Eaters.

Yes a very long title...but the message is worth the eyestrain! The message being that in her opinion, when she moved to France with her young children she was able to glean from the French food culture around her certain rules and norms which helped her teach her own children how to become like she says, happy & healthy eaters. Go here to read her interview on The Feed. She's got a fun blog too - click on her name above to visit.

I have a relative picky eater in the house - he will eat a lot of just a few things and I have gotten used to tailoring my menus to his likes and dislikes. After reading the interview and viewing the informative and engaging French Food Rules graphic (BA and Ms. La Billon - please don't come after me...the credit is all yours!) I decided to take a stand.

French Food Rules from Bon Appetit.com and Karen Le Billon

Last night I served Stir-fried Eggplant and Tofu from Sunset Magazine for dinner and followed numbers 3, 5 & 6 on above list. It was a bit stressful for me as he (younger son) came in and out of the kitchen during my prep, mumbling away at what he was going to be eating. The misery continued on during dinner as he limped along, cutting the small "no thank you bites" I had given him into minuscule pieces for him to ingest. I kept it together though and did my best to ignore his reactions and kept the conversation going - not about food.

What I served the little stinker....

In the end I was happy - I had made a dinner that I really enjoyed, the husband liked it too and said we should have it again (score!) and my younger son ate his dinner...well most of it.

I'm linking up to Debbie with her Tuesday at the Table feature so please go read what she says about quiche. Not only a great recipe but great advice today. (like always!)

So excited that today is finally here as I've been writing Lesson Plans and studying for a midterm that finally culminates today - can't wait to get the sewing machine out and start crafting...and have some fun!
Enjoy your day~
Susan