If you have any good recipes you would like to share.  I would love to hear from you.

The Thinker   Whose face is this?    Future Halloween costume? Me in the morning?

 Angry onion!    Happy gourd!  Who needs Mr Potato Head?  One of those Smiley things!

How cute!  Bad kitty!  You've got the cutest little baby face!  I don't even know what this is!

Sos Foyot – Se fierb 150 ml de sherry sec pana cand cantitatea se reduce la jumatate. Se raceste, apoi se adauga la sosul olandez. Se serveste cu carne, peste sau legume la gratar.

Sos maltez – In sezonul portocalelor rosii, nimic nu este mai potrivit alaturi de legume (in special sparanghel) decat un sos maltez. Pur si simplu se inlocuieste zeama de lamaie din sosul olandez cu coaja rasa si zeama strecurata de la 2 portocale rosii mici.

Sos muselina – Chiar inainte de a servi sosul olandez, se incorporeaza in el 75 ml de frisca semi-batuta. Se potriveste cu sparanghelul fiert si cu pestele. Se mai pot adauga verdeturi tocate (pana la 1 lingura), cum ar fi tarhonul, arpagicul sau hasmatuchi.

Sos de mustar – In sosul olandez se incorporeaza 1 lingurita de mustar de Dijon. Se serveste cu peste sau pui la gratar.

Sos noisette – La sosul olandez se adauga 50 g de beurre noisette. Aroma de nuca a acestui sos se potriveste foarte bine cu pestele.

Sos de masline – La sosul olandez se adauga o lingura cu varf de masline negre, de foarte buna calitate, fin tocate. Merge excelent cu sparanghelul si cu felurile cu ou.

Sos de sofran – Se adauga ½ lingurita de fire de sofran la apa cu otet atunci cand se incepe prepararea sosului olandez.

Sos cu frunze de nasturel – La sosul olandez se adauga 100 g de frunze de nasturel medicinal tocate si se amesteca bine.

this picture`s inspiration comes from the british food month in our cantine, and from my several months of experience in the coffeshop, where I am a succesfull waiter on the weekends. buhahaha

ps for the lucky people who never had to experience the gift of the british cuisine, baked beans in tomato sauce

In 1890, an alien St. Louis physician allegedly encouraged the buyer of a aliment articles company, George A. Bayle Jr., to action and amalgamation arena peanut adhesive as a alimental protein acting for humans with poor teeth who couldn't bite meat. The physician allegedly had experimented by cutting atom in his hand-cranked meat grinder. Bayle automatic the action and began affairs peanut adulate out of barrels for about 6¢ per pound.

Around the aforementioned time, Dr. John Harvey Kellogg in Battle Creek, Michigan, began experimenting with peanut adulate as a vegetarian antecedent of protein for his patients. His brother, W.K. Kellogg, was business administrator of their sanitarium, the Western Health Reform Institute, but anon opened Sanitas Nut Aggregation which supplied foods like peanut adulate to bounded grocery stores.

In October 60 applications were completed and submitted for assistance. This amount does not cover the abounding applications that were accustomed to abeyant audience that capital just advice on the abounding programs. Trine and I spent two canicule at the Lamb County Aliment Box and what a admirable acquaintance that was allowance those families in that breadth to get advice with aliment and assets that were abundant needed.

One of my better joys this ages was getting able to advice an earlier woman get advice with medicaid assistance, forth with aliment stamps she so badly needed. She is on a anchored assets and with the acceleration of costs in medical affliction she was not able to allow her abundant bare anesthetic additional she was aswell not able to allow to buy food. After arena the cat-and-mouse bold for her applications to be candy she was APPROVED. She will accept advice with Doctor’s visits, medicine, and FOOD!! What a admirable absolution it was to advice her get the abetment she so badly needed.

Agencies that I did beat with/or referred abeyant audience to me:

Catholic Family Sevices Lubbock Meals on Wheels

Across the Street Ministries-Lubbock MHMR-Lubbock

Matthews Learning Center-Lubbock Bayless Elementary-Lubbock

Hutchinson Middle School-Lubbock Tubbs Elementary-Lubbock

Children’s Protective Services-Lubbock The Bridge-Lubbock

Neighborhood House-Lubbock Family Promise-Lubbock

Covenant Counseling-Lubbock Loaves & Fishes-Morton

Buckner’s-Lubbock Parenting Cottage-Lubbock

St John’s United Methodist Church-Lubbock Hope Community of Shalom

Community Health Center of Lubbock Superior Health Plan

Salvation Army Aspermont Aliment Bank

Hamlin Aliment Coffer Kent Co. Aliment Bank

Early Learning Centers of Lubbock Hope Community of Shalom

Homeless Consortium First Care

Hodges Elementary Lamb County Aliment Box

Kent County Extension Program

Non-Agencies that I did beat at/or referred abeyant audience to me:

Slaton Housing Authority

Nurscare-Slaton & Tahoka

Delightfully phrased. I'd be happy to accept the invitation to the lunch party. But please tell me what that food is on the knife at far right? It is definitely a taste which I has not tasted until now.

Ever wonder why toad-in-the-hole is so named when there are no toads or holes involved? 

Interested in the history of Monkey bread (aka pull-apart bread, bubble bread, Christmas morning delights)?  Want to learn how to make Jealousy Puffs or Gargoyle Sauce? 

Welcome to the Food Timeline!  This site is the work of Lynne Olver, “(a) reference librarian with a passion for food history.”  Olver crams her site with amazing, interesting and unusual information.

The section of this site that I like best?  Decade foods (USA: 1900s-1980s) describes popular 20th century American foods.  Learn what the Victorians ate in the early 1900s or reminisce over the foods of your childhood.

~TAB

I m a first time jacket potato maker... with BAKED BEANS

this definitely means I spent too much time in England

Here is how things went for me.

I slowly melted 14 oz. of candy disks, and then stirred in 1/3 cup corn syrup.  The disk were initially very smooth and creamy with a matte surface after melting.  I noticed a change in the quality of the disks as soon as I added the syrup.  It became gooier  and much more shinny.  At first I thought this was the effect of the cool syrup lowering the temperature but the texture change persisted even after the syrup was fully incorporated and warmed.

I then poured the mixture out onto a silicone mat to cool.  Waxed paper would also be suitable.  You can see the clay is very shiny.  There seemed to be a layer of oil on the surface of the clay.  Most of the oil was pulled back into the clay as it cooled.  I then covered the clay with waxed paper to avoid cat prints from my very curious pets.

After three hours of cooling, I made bear in the picture above.  

Here is how the clay rated against my criterion.

• Stickiness:  A little less sticky than the first recipe I tried.  The stickiness here was due to oil from the melting disks and not a sugar stickiness.  B-
• Color Fast: OOPS!  I forgot to color this clay, so I don't know the answer here.
• Consistency: As you can see in the photo above, this clay held the shape much better than the first recipe.   A-
• Taste: Like white chocolate.  B+  But, I'm sure that the quality of the melting disks used could vary a great deal.  It will pretty much taste like what ever disks you purchase.

Over all I think I liked the melting disk clay better.  A disadvantage of this clay is that you need to use the stove to melt the disks; clearly this can't just be handed to young kids for an "on their own" project.  Since I will prep this clay in advance, the use of the stove is not an issue, and the active prep time for this clay was less than the frosting clay.  The white clay seemed to handle much better, and held shapes much better.  As you can see in the photo above, the frosting like clay continued to slump even more after I took the first photo.  I am also considering just leaving the melting disk clay white and letting the kids color their creations with food coloring markers.  I will probably chill them in the fridge for a while before coloring.  I know some kids will love sculpting with the clay, some will just eat it and some will head straight for the sand box.  But everyone will be busy.

Plans for our party are going well and I'm really looking forward to the day.  I will post some photos of the kid's sculptures (and maybe mine) after the party next month.

BTW, I finished the invites yesterday.  I think they will be a hit!

While researching skulls for a sculpture project I came across this fantastic blog showing a skull made every day for a whole year.  It's called www.skulladay.com and it began on June 4th 2007 with an orange paper skull and the promise of a new skull every single day.  There are so many creative and bizzare skulls to take in like sugar spill skulls and rotting cabbage skulls.  With the project completed, readers are now able to send in their submissions of skulls which are uploaded to the blog daily.  The site has won several web and blog awards and you can even download free skull fonts.

Below are some of the fantastic examples found and I'm still trying to get through them all!

Condom Skull

Sushi Skull

Graff Skull

Gunshot Skull

Mesh Skull

Egg Skull (so cute!)

Dog Hair Skull

Pie Skull

Bacteria Skull (amazing)

Toy Skull

Btw - I am baking my own bread and in order to give you a hint that this is NOT a Whopper but a fresh bread with a diameter of approx. 11 inches and the knife is really BIG - you get the idea...

...

This year S has requested a "candy" party.  As an activity, I thought we should make some sort of edible candy craft.  Candy clay seems the perfect thing.  Many of the guests bring younger siblings and pleasing them all is sometimes problematic.  If they are not interested in sculpting with it, they can still eat it.

I started hunting around the net looking for recipes and found lots of variations of one that used candy melting disks and one other that was frosting like.  I decided it might be a good idea to test the recipes first.  The potential for disaster seems pretty high.  (Our party will be outside and I can just see 8 children covered in sticky goo that leaves brightly covered stains on everything after we turn the hose on them!)  I would like a candy clay is not too sticky, is relatively color fast, has a consistency similar to playdoh, and would taste good.  I decided to try the frosting like recipe first. Here it is: 

• 3 cups powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup corn syrup
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup margarine, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• food coloring

1. Combine powdered sugar, corn syrup, salt, margarine, and vanilla extract in a large bowl.  

2. Mix until the dough doesn't feel sticky.  You may add more powdered sugar to make it less sticky 1/4 to 1/3 cup.  be sure to add it slowly and stop when the dough feels dry.

3. Divide the dough into smaller balls and put each ball into a separate bowl.

4. Add a few drops of food coloring to each bowl.  Make the dough in each bowl a different color.

5. Mix the food coloring into the dough with a spoon so you don't stain your hands.  Once the food coloring starts ti blend in, use your hands to knead it in.

6. Sculpt a creation.  Eat them soon as they will become rock hard over time.

THE RESULTS:

I made a 1/2 recipe all in the same color to keep things simple.  The clay took a lot of mixing to get it to come together.  I did have to add the extra 1/3 cup of powdered sugar, ABOUT THREE TIMES!  The clay was very sticky for a long time.  I added about 1 teaspoon of red paste color.  When I got to the point of kneading the clay, I added MORE powdered sugar, maybe a cup.  I stopped when the surface of the clay would crack a little when I pushed down on it.  Despite all the extra sugar this clay still gets sticky when your hands get warm.  It is sugar after all.  So, here is how it rates on my criterion.

• Stickiness:  Not too bad, although doing this on a sunny deck may be problematic.  C
• Color Fast: Also, not bad a after all the mixing was done and it rested for a minute or two. B
• Consistency: As you can see in the photo below, there is a lot of slump.  C-
• Taste: Like frosting.  S thought we should have something that tasted more like candy, or that we flavor each color differently.  That would be easily accomplished by substituting various extracts for the vanilla.

[caption id="attachment_138" align="aligncenter" width="479" caption="Candy Clay Bear made with the "Frosting" Recipe"][/caption]

My car broke down yesterday, will this pay for the untimely auto repair... it's worth a try, I'll keep you posted.

I swear I’m not making this up! xoxo  I have witnesses!

...they're easily ten times more creative than all the crap we had to drone on about in art school endlessly.

The shrimp cocktail (coctel de camarones) was menued as ceviche. It was spicy, fresh and loaded with shrimp. It was a meal in itself, so no entree was necessary.

The coolest thing was how they served it: In a parfait glass with tortilla chips arranged on the plate. A lime quarter on the glass and a long spoon completed the presentation. It was nice touch.

A very Pumpboys and Dinettes experience, complete with a San Juan Diego prayer candle on the table. Nice.

It's also an artist's tool, as evidenced by the "creations" on British photographer Carl Warner's website. Using foods like fruit, vegetables, herbs, pasta, cheeses, breads, and dried peas and beans, Warner creates and then photographs inventive landscape scenes. His work amazes me!

Heads of cauliflower are used as clouds, mushrooms turn into stones, loaves of bread stand in for mountains, broccoli become trees, stacked pine nuts make fences, blocks of cheese are used as buildings...and so on. I'll bet you'll be astonished and impressed too!

I could stare at each image for a long time, awed by the creative way he has re-imagined foods to create landscapes. He calls the scenes 'foodscapes'. Apparently, he creates and photographs the images in stages so the foods don't wilt or dry out by time the scene is completed.

But enough chatter from me! Have a look and see what you think. Once on Warner's site, click on the orange box labelled 'fotographics'. The first set of images that will pop up are the 'foodscapes'. To view each one in closer detail, click on the image.

Don't be surprised if after viewing this amazing art, you feel like heading to the fridge - for a snack! Or maybe to work on your own piece of creative foodscaping!

www.carlwarner.com

Okay, this is an update from my previous post. After posting, I should have gone to bed. I should not have picked up sock number three and started working on the heel increases. I should have known I would "HIT THE POINT OF NO RETURN" and be stuck knitting into the wee hours...which is where I am now. I'm so tired my eyes hurt, I have a ton of work to do tomorrow, and I need to drive to Concord to ensure the papers to continue our health insurance arrive in time so we don't lose coverage (Not that I'll be driving, I've already enlisted the services of my mother chauffeur, for I rarely drive if the trip is of any distance, and I can possibly help it...after all, knitting while you drive is not recommended) . Yet, I didn't stop, and I did complete the heel increases and started the decreases. Decreasing is one of my favorite parts of making socks with this toe-up formula, so putting down the needles was hard, crazy hard. But I MUST sleep. So here are the three socks, for the last time, because any subsequent photos will be after the point of using up all the yarn in the first sock. I'll have to add on to finish the calf, which shows how much looser the first sock was knit than the second and third.

My Original post for the evening...

I'm sort of whimping out here, I didn't do anything fun to blog about today, as I worked a lot, instead. However, I did watch a very cool video, that I think many of you would like too. It's art, it's food, it's humor...all things I think a Whatdidshedotoday blog reader would enjoy and it's only 4 minutes long, so if I'm wrong, it's not too much time to have wasted.

The London Festival of Architecture 2008, a celebration and exploration of the city's buildings, streets and spaces, is now open. And what would a festival of architecture be without an Architectural Jelly Design Competition?

According to Bompas & Parr, the competition sponsor:

Jelly* had its heyday in the late 19 Century: exquisite copper moulds** were made that transformed the jelly into the most noble of desserts. The key features of these moulds are regular geometry, tiered designs and plastic forms. Forget all this! Bompas & Parr are giving you the opportunity to reinvent the jelly.

*In Britain, jelly is the term used for gelatin dessert.

**"Mould" = chiefly British variant of mold

Entries submitted by May 23rd will be transformed into moulds by Bompas & Parr for auction on behalf of Architects for Aid. Entries will be judged on innovation, aesthetics and “wobble factor”, with the competition curated by jelly experts B&P. Winning designs will be exhibited (and eaten) at a special Architectural Jelly Banquet.

Anglophiles will instantly recognize London's Millenium Bridge done in red jelly.

On July 4th, "Architectural foodsmiths Bompas & Parr invite you to enter a fantastical jelly world. Performers wearing vast jelly costumes will dance around an altar containing an array of over 1000 specially commissioned jellies. Guests will be invited to participate in the jellymongers' transubstantiation ritual of turning jelly into architecture. Jellies created as part of the Architectural Jelly Design Competition will be showcased alongside bespoke wobbling soundscapes and projections."

A jellymonger serving jellies.

A popular motif for the Victorian table was this patriotic British lion (made from jelly). Via the Historic Food website.

Hail Britannia! and long may her jellies wiggle.

Related MadSilence post: The Art of Jell-O

]]> http://foodporndaily.wordpress.com/?p=346 Sun, 29 Jun 2008 19:29:24 +0000 Robin http://fpdaily.net/2008/06/29/fpd-shopping-handmade-6/

Your Salt and Pepper will feel extra-special in these pretty shakers. Perfect for you Fung-Shui types! From GamiWorks Etsy Shop.

The Jell-O Gelatin Salad Selector (paperback) published by General Foods in 1980. JELL-O® is a registered trademark of Kraft Foods Holdings, Inc.

Finding a copy of The Jell-O Gelatin Salad Selector at a used book sale I was immediately overcome with memories of my mother's Jell-O desserts: Jell-O with whip cream, Jell-O with canned fruit cocktail, and Jell-O with canned pineapple rings. The book is filled with amazing images of Jell-O dishes, some quite ambitious: there's Banana Greens, Carrot Cheese Ring, Saucy Yogurt Salad, Hawaiian Harvest, and Pineapple Lime Temptation. And the ever popular Tomato Aspic to be served with hamburger.

What's especially nifty are the paper wheels in each page that can be rotated to offer several Jell-O recipe options to match tonight's entree.

Amazing but true Jello-O facts:

● Every day, an average of 758,012 boxes of Jell-O are purchased in the U.S.
● As immigrants passed through Ellis Island, they were often served a bowl of Jell-O as a "Welcome to America" treat.
● When hooked up to an electroencephalograph machine—an instrument that records the electrical activity of the brain—Jell-O demonstrates movement virtually identical to the brain waves of a healthy adult man or woman.
● Fresh or frozen pineapple contains an enzyme that prevents Jell-O from setting. Canned pineapple can be used because the canning process eliminates the enzyme.
● Jell-O can be used to make finger paint, dye your hair, clean the dishwasher, scrub the shower, and deodorize cat litter.

And of course this wouldn't be MadSilence without some Jell-O art! Check out this video about Liz Hickok, Jell-O artist and photographer, who makes architectural sculptures from Jell-O. Be sure to visit Hickok's San Francisco in Jell-O.

View from Alcatraz, C-Print, (2007) by Liz Hickok

Jell-O: A Biography

According to Jell-O: A Biography by Carolyn Wyman (Harcourt, 2001), Jell-O had modest beginnings. Peter Cooper, inventor of the Tom Thumb steam locomotive and founder of Cooper Union College, took out the first U.S. patent for a gelatin dessert in 1845. Beyond obtaining the patent, Cooper did little with it. In 1897, Pearl B. Wait decided to enter the rapidly expanding packaged food business and focused on developing a fruit-flavored version of Cooper's gelatin. It was Wait's wife, May, who named it Jell-O, for reasons unknown today. She may have been referring to the way it had to jell before being eaten. The "O" was a popular ending for product names at that time. The first Jell-O flavors were raspberry, lemon, orange, and strawberry. Wait tried to sell Jell-O door-to-door, but he lacked the resources to market it properly. Wait sold the Jell-O business in 1899 to Orator Woodward, a successful entrepreneur, for $450. Woodward's first-year sales of Jell-O were so poor that, after seeing stacks of unsold cases of Jell-O during a plant tour, he offered to sell the business to his plant supervisor for $35--and was turned down. But he increased advertising, and by 1902, Woodward had to double the size of his plant to keep up with demand for the quarter-million-dollar Jell-O business.

Wyman's book illustrates how Jell-O's culinary evolution paralleled changes in American society. It was marketed as a simple, inexpensive dessert to women in the early 20th century; as a way to stretch food during the Great Depression; as a convenient dessert when convenience foods were introduced in the 1950s; and as edible entertainment beginning in the 1990s.

Related links:
Kraft Foods Holdings, Inc., the manufacturer of Jell-O
JELL-O: The quintessential American dish is a part of everyone's childhood from Chemical and Engineering News
Japanese Yebisu beer jelly
What exactly is Jell-O made from? from HowStuffWorks
How to make Jell-O shots

JELL-O® is a registered trademark of Kraft Foods Holdings, Inc.

~TAB

Catty Corner with Moira Tuscanaro

Often I am asked by students in the Digestion-through-Yoga Class I offer out by the maple tree where that rude squirrel can see me and be jealous of my fine fur and ability to stretch out flat which he can not do regardless of the fact that he climbs trees faster than me: How else can I lose weight? Aside from yoga which is slightly boring?

The only advice I could offer to date was of course to "Talk to the Paw". Prrrrrrrrr. In other words, control your eating by what you put on your plate. Mew.

But there is something else you can do. If you love food (as I do, particularly I do love tiny little birds so very French and gourmand-ish!) instead of poring over cookbooks and buying all these things which then must be eaten after you cook them, make your food from non-edible materials.

Ack ack ack! Just look at these delicious-looking felt foods!! I would love to bat these around the floor!

I can not sew, unfortunately.

Both Barry Fig and I share the   same problem though his may be only temporary from being turned into a dog while mine more happily is just a part of me for naturally! thank the heavens! I was born a Cat. Prrrrrrr. Not having thumbs prevents me from sewing. I assure you that I'd rather have my claws at any rate.

These books would be delightful to sit upon also, I believe. All cats know that a book can be the best sleeping place especially if their mistress or master wants to read that particular book. Meow.

(More information about the crafts and the book are at xoulone's flickr page - just click on one of the above photos to link there!)