pretty bunnies


Purple carrots, you’re just so pretty. I want a dress that looks like you. It would fade from inky purple to pale, butter yellow and fit perfectly. In purple carrots dreams begin.

purple carrots peeld

In attempting to make carrot roses with baby purple carrots…purple fingertips occur. Unfortunately pretty little purple roses did not occur. Baby carrots are just too small to wrangle into blooms.

I saw carrot roses on BraveTart, the blog of Stella Parks, and an immediate madness took hold of me. I want to put them on everything. I love BraveTart madly. I read it for months before venturing a comment. I’m kinda quiet that way when I admire someone’s work fiercely. Clearly I’m not alone. Stella Parks was named one of The Best New Pastry Chefs by Food and Wine Magazine this year. She makes desserts I want to eat and make and would bathe in if possible. She makes rainbow sprinkles. Do you really need to know more? Get over there!

I had many ideas for how to use carrot roses. This light, simple salad was a total whim. I just couldn’t let go of the purple carrots and somehow they needed to be involved in whatever I made. I’ve also recently discovered white cucumbers at a farmer’s stand in the Public Market. And if you visit this sty regularly you already know I have a thing for black sesame seeds.

So this is my impromptu creation made from foods that make me want to dip-dye fabric and inspired by a pastry chef who steadily inspires me.

pretty bunnies close up

White cucumbers, English cucumbers, strawberries and curling purple carrot slivers are lightly dressed with a ginger, lime and sesame oil dressing then festooned with carrot roses and dotted with black sesame seeds.

You can find the directions for creating carrot roses over at BraveTart. I added fresh ginger to the simple syrup that thick carrot peels are quickly cooked in. They taste like candy. It took me about four tries…not counting the failed baby purple carrot versions…to teach my fingers how to coil and twist roses.

pretty bunnies salad

This is the prettiest salad I’ve ever made. It reminds me of making paintings and that lost in color and line feeling I have when I do actually take out my brushes.

Dear BraveTart…I oink you!

Happy summer!

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socks on a plane

I travel on airplanes often. When I write about my in-flight experiences it’s usually a shameless plea for Otis Spunklemeyer Cookies to be served to economy class travelers. Warm cookies are gratis in business class and first class on American. I look forward to using my upgrades for this reason. No joke. I hit the upgrade button and think, “Ah yeah…warm cookie, boss!”

Maybe cookies should be a reward for being a considerate traveler. I’ve witnessed some seriously poor travel etiquette so today I’m compelled to post:

Travel Tips for People Who Would Like to Act Like Decent People While Flying on Airplanes with Other People:

So…you wanna take your shoes off. I get it. If you must unleash your dogs please keep in mind that you’re in public. Not everyone thinks your socks rock. Slip your shoes off when you’re seated if you must and put them back on when you traipse down the aisle. Please have unsmelly foot zones.

socking it down the aisle

Putting your foot on the armrest in front of you is downright rude, gross and intrusive to the person whose arm is supposed to rest on the armrest which is, by the way, their armrest. Arm. Dig?

stocking foot on an armrest

When you put your feet or knees on the back of the seat in front of you…the person seated in said seat can totally feel that. It sucks. Try not to suck.

When you get up from your seat try not to haul your weight up by using the seat in front of you. That is not how I like my world rocked. This tip also applies to hanging onto every seat as you mosey down the aisle. Sometimes you gotta steady yourself. Cool. Use this method sparingly.

When you stand in the aisle facing into your row and you bend over at the waist…your butt is face level with the person seated in the aisle seat opposite your row. Awkward.

booty in the face zone

Don’t crowd the gate. You have an assigned seat. You will get to sit in it.

Headphones are not optional. On a flight to Lisbon I got to listen to Alvin and The Chipmunks because a toddler didn’t want to wear his headphones.

If someone asks you to have your kid wear headphones don’t get riled and then read stories to your child in a loud, animated voice for the rest of the flight. Being passive aggressive to your fellow travelers is not good parenting.

Use your inside voice. You’re inside.

Keep in mind that people may be traveling for many reasons…some joyful, some not so joyful. Being considerate doesn’t cost you more.

Being a jerk to the flight attendants makes you look like a jerk.

Be thoughtful, considerate, self-aware. Maybe they’ll give the nice people cookies.

first class cookies

This has been a public service announcement. And another shameless plea for warm cookies!

Please feel free to add a travel tip, vent about rude travelers or join me in my pursuit of warm cookies for all classes in the comment section.

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brown sugar blondie

Welcome to orientation. Almonds, listen up. Look to your left and meet cranberries. Now look to your right and say hello to dark chocolate. In thirty some minutes all three of you are gonna be here being beautiful together.

cranberries almonds and dark chocolate for blondies

Did you think I was gonna kick one of you out? No expletive way. This group has winner potential. None of you will fail or be turfed out. You’re in.

You’re about to be part of a cakey cookie pie: a blondie.

brown sugar blondie with cranberries almonds and dark chocolate

You could bake this brown sugar blondie in a square or rectangular pan. You could do that and it would be totally cool. I had a sturdy ten-inch, round cake pan from Bargreen Ellison ready to be buttered and baked in. This brown sugar blondie with cranberries, raw almonds and dark chocolate is the first thing I baked in my new cake pan.

We will always have this memory, cake pan.

There’s another reason to bake a blondie in a round cake pan. When you cut the first wedge you get a really good Pac Man moment.

brown sugar blondie with one wedge cut

This blondie is baked thin which means  each wedge is loaded with the tangy nip of dried cranberries, the crunch of chopped raw almonds and the forever necessary heaven of dark chocolate. Using only brown sugar makes this blondie rich and toffee-ish but not overwhelming.

brown sugar blondie and tea cup of iced coffee

I made versions of this blondie with dark brown sugar and with golden brown sugar. You see both in the photos. The unsullied blondie and the Pac Man blondie were made with dark brown sugar. The wedge with a side of iced coffee is the golden brown sugar edition. Both were one hundred percent rockin’. Dark brown sugar will give you a richer, slightly heavier blondie. I prefer the golden brown sugar version.

Do you. No worries.

Enjoy a wedge with a dainty cup of strong, iced coffee.

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word

I promised you dough and  paprika. I had high-falutin’ photography goals: to capture steam escaping from a savory, cheese-loaded puff. The recipe is solid and though the steam shot eluded me, I did snap some pretty pictures. It’s the words. Words leave or they hang around in awkward arrangements, flopping unglamorously and trying to propel themselves out of the rowboat.

They take sides.

squeaky clean and dirty birds

I wonder if words are jealous of my new best buddy, Instagram. I need to restrain myself with the Instagram. I’m snap-happy and I love layering on those mini, moody effects.

Delicatus Seattle

Instagram is like the dimmer switch that’s in my NYC living room. It was there when I moved in. I’ve left it for decades despite many, MANY color and style changes. Everything looks better when you activate the dimmer switch.

You can hear Marvin Gaye getting into trouble, man. It’s a mood setter.

Smith Tower and the raincloud Seattle

While I wrangle words…here’re some moody moments from my recent Instagram fest.

graffiti car

They are here because you are here. I appreciate that.

cook with love steps

If you wanna see what I’m up to on Instagram then click on this oink.

Do it. Lead!  Rally toward the tipping point!

I owe you snacks.

XO ~ the oinker

 

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twisted sister

Hello again. C’est moi…the writer, cook, photographer, dishwasher around this sty. I’m also the IT chick which means all techie progress happens slowly with lots of Googling and confusion. I was happily reading Ask Chef Dennis and getting some wisdom thrown at me when I oinked my appreciation by leaving a comment. As soon as I hit Submit Comment I saw my mistake…big as Bigfoot stomping through the backyard, flattening the flowers.

I e-mailed Chef Dennis and fessed up. He gracefully and generously turned it into a friendly connection. Then he invited me to write a guest post for A Culinary Journey with Chef Dennis. How cool is that? Very. It has layers of cool.

Chef Dennis…I’m making you my best pastry: Orange Cinnamon Vanilla Twisted Sister. Thank you for being my first friend on Foodbuzz, twitter, Pinterest, and Google Plus. You deserve some sort of amped up, lifetime version of the Most Valuable Foodie award you won at the Foodbuzz 2011 fest. And thank you for making my twisted words into a twist of fate.

I’m oinking at you!

the fat pig and twisted sister pastry for Chef Dennis

Hustle on over to A Culinary Journey with Chef Dennis to read my guest post which includes the recipe and a slammin’ photo tutorial on how to shape this pastry.

See you back here next week…there’ll be cheese, paprika and more dough. Promise!

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where I go

Where do I go when this space becomes less chatty? Places, I guess.

I go out to eat BBQ in NYC. Mojitos are served in mason jars with straws and fruit slices. There are star-shaped signs.  I like all those things.

drinks and bbq in NYC

I go cruising through markets wondering how to get involved with things like peche-peche. I’m still working that out.

peche peche at Uwajimaya

I take phone photos of bunnies and send them to my friends who have kid-people who like bunnies. I’m either interesting or eerie in the reflection. Possibly both.

bunnies and me

I stop for strong, smooth coffee and a quick dunk in the soulful vibe at Zeitgeist.

Zeitgeist coffee

I mess around with Instagram, flour, butter and spices.

I attempt to tweet and get kinda confused about hashtags. Repeatedly.

I try to break out and make comments on blogs I’ve been reading and marveling at for months, years even. I make a hideous typo while commenting on a blog that I admire.

I spy a rainbow: faint in the background.

rainbow over construction

Come back this Friday to see more of what I’ve been up to.

Is this thing on? Oink!

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