Oasis World Market in Blacksburg, VA

Red bean flavoured popsicles, fufu flour, mint drinkable yogurt (delicious), jarred lotus rootlets--

strawberry puding mix (or in English, pudding)--

and inordinate carrots.

Mushrooms have bubbles? Is that OK?

And this one too . . .

I found the website for Saveur magazine. Typing in "apples" brought up so many wonderful things!
From http://ourchocolateshavings.blogspot.com/2009/09/apple-pudding.html:

Apple Pudding
Serves 4

2 big apples (I used Cortland), peeled, cored and roughly chopped
1/2 lemon, juice and zest
2 x 1/4 cup of brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
1/4 cup of self-rising flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
50 grams of room temperature butter
1 egg

Preheat your oven to 350F.
In a small bowl, combine the apple pieces, lemon juice and zest, cinnamon and brown sugar. Set aside.

In a another bowl, using an electrical mixer, beat the butter and sugar (about 2 minutes). Add the the egg and vanilla extract until just combined. Slowly add in the flour until just combined. Divide the apple mixture into 4 individual ramekins and spoon over the flour mixture. Bake for 40-45 minutes. Enjoy!

Remind me to make this

Buttery Apple Cake-Tart

This recipe started life as Ligita's Quick Apple Cake, which is a classic recipe in itself. As things tend to do in my kitchen, however, this evolved, and now it's a close relative of Ligita's cake, but definitely its own dessert. For one, I bake it in a shallow tart pan, which allows for maximum crustiness and a somewhat lighter texture. I've also taken out the cinnamon, which I felt was masking the delicate flavor of the browned butter, and replaced it with a vanilla bean, since vanilla bean sauteed in brown butter is one of the best things ever, trust me. The result is something really unique, like I said, a cross between a cake and a tart, crisp and soft, buttery, fragrant and fruity. And trust me again, you will want some whipped cream or ice cream alongside.
Source: adapted from Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax
Yield: one thin, 11-inch cake; serves 8

3 large tart apples, such as Granny Smith, peeled, cored and thinly sliced
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
3/4 cup (150g) plus 3 tablespoons sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks/180g) unsalted butter
1/2 vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise (i.e. cut a bean in half crosswise, then split the half lengthwise)
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour, sifted
1/4 teaspoon salt
Vanilla-flavored whipped cream or ice cream, for serving

Preheat the oven to 350F/175C. Generously butter an 11-inch (28cm) nonreactive tart pan or other similarly-sized glass or ceramic baking dish. Toss the apples in a bowl with the lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of the sugar. Spread the apples evenly in the prepared pan.

Combine the butter and vanilla bean in a small saucepan (not nonstick - you need to be able to see the butter change color). Cook the butter over medium until the milk solids are light brown and the whole thing smells deeply nutty, about 7-10 minutes. Watch carefully to avoid burning.

Allow to cool for a few minutes, then remove the vanilla bean (add it to your extract!) and pour the browned butter into a medium-sized bowl, scraping the black vanilla seeds and browned butter solids in too. Stir the 3/4 cup (150g) sugar into the butter. Gently stir in the eggs; stir in the flour and salt just until blended. Spoon the batter evenly over the apples and spread into an even layer. Sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.

Bake until lightly golden and crusty, 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan on a wire rack. Cut into wedges and serve from the pan warm, with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Update: so I made this and it was pretty good but just way too sweet. Next time I won't toss the apples with sugar and I'll cut the sugar in the custard to about 1/2 cup.

Oh, how I love brussel sprouts! They are my solace in the depths of paper writing all the term.
Or whatever.

Anyway, Lauryl roasted brussel sprouts in cast iron with balsamic vinegar and generous black pepper. I'm in love.

The other veggie I fell in love with this week was rutabaga with butter and rosemary and white pepper.

Me: 2. Oven: 0.

Round Things and Yay-We-Made-It-Through-Finals Oysters

Announcement

If you want to marry me, you must give me a Theo Chocolate Coconut Curry Milk Chocolate bar. Other Theo Chocolates are welcome. www.theochocolate.com
And a nice block of parmesan.
And a bouquet of basil.

That's all for now.

Thank you.

The Bread Saga

Well, as you saw, we had quite an exciting time. I made bread out of the Tassajara bread book for declamations. (Yay for Senioritis. The assignment was to make some sort of food representative of our college experience. Mr.Schwandt gets hungry at 2:30 and my class is It makes four loaves. This is our biggest bowl. It's amazing what yeast can do. I forgot how humongous this thing could get.

The sponge: tohu va bohu

After the first rising.

Braided

And baked.

Unbaked loaves #3 and #4.

Warm and sliced. Lauryl absolutely adores butter. Like the king in the A.A. Milne poem: "But I do like a little bit of butter for my royal slice of bread!" Except Lauryl doesn't do just a little bit.

IT'S ALIIIIIIIVE

(Unidentified Exploding Object)

(tomato seeds)

Delicious placebo

We're all sick. Chicken soup makes it better. As does coffee.




4 big cloves of garlic, chopped
4 quarter-sized leeks (white and light green parts), chopped & rinsed meticulously
7 large, or to taste, baby bella mushrooms, sliced thin
2 glugs olive oil

2 small celery sticks, sliced
1 or 2 carrots, sliced thin
Bay leaf or two, salt, thyme, tarragon, oregano, poultry seasoning? (just don't go by color)
1/4c nutritional yeast (well worth the trip to the co-op or whatever hippie store)
2 boxes of chicken broth, or enough canned to submerge all the goodies

Black pepper
Noodles or some kind of grain, cooked
Parmesan cheese (optional)

Get the biggest pot you have and saute the leeks, garlic, and shrooms until the mushroom juice is almost all reabsorbed. Then throw in the stuff up to the broth, cook just until carrots are edible, and administer pepper, carbs, and cheese at will.

Food relates to everything

From Sunday's meditation on the Lord's Supper:

This table is God’s soup kitchen. This table is where God feeds the hungry, the outcast, the disabled, the orphaned, the abused, the neglected, the lonely, and the lost. And this means at least two things: First, this table is not for people who are fine thank you very much. This food is not for the well-fed, those who get along pretty well on their own, the fit, or the popular. This table is not for people are basically good but screw up every once in a while. This table is for the messed up. It’s for people who are failures. It’s for parents who have failed their children. It’s for children who have failed their parents. It’s for spouses who have failed one another. This table is for the needy, the broken, and the weak. It is for those who are starving for God’s grace and mercy, and they will die if they do not have it. If you know your need, if you know that you are weak, that you are lonely, that you are failure on your own, and that you need your faithful Father’s love and care, then come. This meal is for you. This is grace and mercy for you. Secondly, Paul says that when we eat this sacrament we need to discern the Lord’s body, we need to see Jesus. And as we have emphasized before, this doesn’t mean squinting hard at the bread and wine trying to see flesh and blood somehow. Paul is talking about seeing Jesus in those around you, seeing Jesus next to you and behind you as you serve one another and partake together. But putting these two things together means that Jesus wants you to see Him in the neediness of those around you; He wants you to see Him in the hungry, the outcast, the disabled, the orphaned around you. He wants you to see Him there. He wants you to see Him in those people who are different from you; He wants you to see Him in those you have had disagreements with. He wants you to see Him even in those who may have wronged you. He wants you to give them bread for their hunger and give them wine for their thirst. So come to God’s soup kitchen. Come to the banquet spread for the needy of the world. Come and rejoice because there is plenty of grace for you. Jesus gives Himself to you, and He calls you to eat, drink, and rejoice in and with one another.

Just Desserts

Raspberry Fool: yogurt and cooked raspberries swirled together in love, topped with toasted almonds.


Thumbprint Cookies: These turned into fingerprint cookies because my thumb was to big for the cookie. I never took a photo of them dressed with chocolate because we ate them too fast. But here they are, naked as the day they came out of the oven.

Berries and Biscuits: This is one of the simplest and tastiest desserts. Buttermilk biscuits and fresh market blueberries, rich whipped cream--oh the joy!

Polenta Hat

A wide red brim of a plate elevates the bright yellow polenta. Dick Tracy would have been proud of this bold statement. Left-over Ratatouille adorns the crown. A most comical hat has been created for breakfast.

Despite the comedy, the flavours play in joy and not as jesters. Polenta butters the Ratatouille, and the Ratatouille brings stability to the polenta. The bright yellow begins to diminish, the plate dominates with its bright red.

The yellow crown of the hat vanishes in large wedges. Now the hat is no more. Only a red plate speckled with grainy yellow and one, lonely piece of zucchini sits on the table. My breakfast comedy has turned tragic. Everything died and is gone. But the tragedy is not real. It is only an illusion. A temporary set-back for the plate and there is still Ratatouille in the fridge. The tragedy is really a comedy pulling a sad face. Breakfast wouldn't be complete without some sense of this comedy.

1/2 pound logic, chopped

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