eat make read

I saw this recipe for soft pretzels the other day and immediatley clicked on the link. There’s just something about soft pretzels that is so comforting, they seemed like the perfect rainy weekend snack. Once I arrived at the source of the link, Sugarlaws, there’s no way I could pass up making these. Her description raved about the goodness that these little twists of dough held.

I whipped up a batch Sunday morning and by that evening I’d already begun a second go round. They are pretty dang tasty. They are soft and yeasty on the inside with a golden slightly crispier outside dusted with salt. I do have to say since I overdosed a little bit, they aren’t as good the next day, so you may not want to get as ambititious as I did.

soft pretzels
from sugarlaws

1 tsp active dry yeast
Pinch of sugar
1/3 cup warm water
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp canola oil

3 tbsp baking soda
1 cup hot water (as hot as your tap can get)
Sea salt

1
Dissolve yeast into water with a pinch of sugar, let stand 10 minutes, until the mixture is creamy colored.
2
Mix the yeast mixture with flour, sugar, salt and canola oil, and knead until combined (a few minutes, not even 5). Let the dough rise in a greased bowl until doubled in size, about 1 hour.
3
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. When the dough has risen, pinch off a handful and roll it out into a long strand. Set aside. Repeat with the rest of the dough, about 6 times.
4
Once all the strands are rolled out, pick up the first one and stretch it out again (the gluten will have relaxed and it should stretch further now). Twist it into a pretzel shape and place it on a baking sheet lined with silipat or cooking spray. Repeat with the rest of the strands.
5*
Dissolve baking soda into hot water and stir until dissolved. Quickly dip each rolled pretzel into the mixture and place it back on the baking sheet. Sprinkle all the pretzels with sea salt, to your preference. 6
Bake for about 8 minutes, until pretzels have browned.

*I actually melted 1 Tablespoon butter and brushed the tops with it instead of using the baking soda mixture. It was tasty.

I don’t remember the first time I tried honey and cheese, but I do remember thinking it was one of the best things ever. This weekend after picking up some manchego cheese at the market, I decided to take it up a notch by adding some spices to the honey. Aaron suggested adding cayenne pepper, which sounded pretty brilliant to me. I also decided to try a less spicy route by adding freshly ground pepper and rosemary to different pot of honey.

The result? Awesome! I wasn’t sure my honey/cheese combo could get any better, but this definitely took it up a notch. The cayenne and honey was simple and subtle but provided the perfect little party on your tongue. The sweetness of the honey came through first, followed by the creaminess of the cheese and then you get little pricks on the back of your tongue. Good stuff!

Where the cayenne combo was sort of a step-by-step flavor, the ground pepper and rosemary concoction was a more round, full flavor. The rosemary just peeked through with flavor and seemed to enhance the sweetness of the honey.

Spiced honey is a super simple, but tasty pairing for your cheese. Try it out and experiment for yourself! You won’t be disappointed.

Cayenne Honey
1 Tablespoon honey
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Ground Pepper & Rosemary Honey
1 Tablespoon
1/8 teaspoon ground pepper
2 sprigs rosemary, finely chopped

Combine all ingredients in a small bowl.

Oooh, I’ve done it again. I don’t have a happy hour lined up for today but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been thinking about booze. There were a few good articles written this week that left me a little thirsty. The New York Times ran this great article about beer brewed in Brooklyn (woohoo!) that featured one of my favorite brewers, Sixpoint Craft Ales. If you’re feeling a bit fancier, try out this recipe for Dale’s Sazerac that left me wishing I had the proper ingredients last night.

I hope you have a great Halloween. If you dress up, I hope your costume wins a prize. Have a fantastic weekend!

Growing up, once December rolled around my mom and I would start hitting the craft fair circuit searching for holiday gifts. My tastes aren’t quite the same anymore, but I still love to buy handmade and I especially love going to the annual BUST Craftacular. This year’s event will be held Saturday December 13 at the Penn Plaza Pavillion and will feature over 200 vendors selling their awesome handmade wares. It’s super fun and you’re sure to find a perfect and unique gift for all your favorite people. Check out this great little piece from Etsy featuring BUST editor Lisa Butterworth and some of her favorite picks from past craftaculars.

Woohoo! I can’t wait!

I was so excited to open an email from Brooklyn Based yesterday to read about a great site called Tasting Table. Not only is the site super lovely to look at, it’s filled with great nyc food-related info. From where to eat to where to exotic Halloween treats, this site is a great resource.

As I was browsing through the site I was pumped to see an interview with Bierkraft’s Ben Granger. We visit Bierkraft almost weekly for a fresh supply of beer or cheese or both and let me tell you, this guy knows his stuff. I swear, if you ask him about any cheese or beer, he most certainly will know where it was made, who made it and what their favorite color is. Ok, maybe not the color thing, but I’m always amazed by his knowledge of the store’s products.

It’s funny, I never tire of reading about food and people’s experiences related to it. When reader Keavy suggested I might like Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant, I went ahead and picked it up. I like to pace my reading, so usually I’ll read something a little dense and then read something that’s a bit lighter to give my brain a break. I picked this book up right after reading Omnivore’s Dilemma and it was the perfect fix after reading such an information laden book.

Alone in the Kitchen is a collection of people’s experiences eating and cooking for themselves. They range from funny to comforting to a little depressing, but all are worth the read. Each story is also followed up by a recipe related to the story. Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant is a great, quick read. Definitely worth a read.

The Times just ran a piece on new fall cookbooks that has me biting my tongue. In the past few months I’ve picked up Nigella Lawson’s Good Food Fast, Shopsin’s Eat Me and the new Baked cookbook to my collection. I promised myself I wouldn’t buy anymore for a while but after reading this it’s going to be hard. The one that might get me: A Platter of Figs and other recipes.

I’ve been a little slack when it comes to writing about reading. But don’t you fret, I’ve been reading away for the past month or so and I have a few good books to tell you about.

Omnivore’s Dilemma is one of those book that I always picked up at the bookstore but always carefully put it back on the shelf before it leaving. It just seemed too intimidating. I mean, do I really want to know all that stuff about my food? Am I really ready to contemplate the lifecyle of each ingredient of my dinner each night? These are the questions that ran through my head each time I looked at that dang book. But then my friend was reading it and had really good things to say about it. So I took the leap and I’m glad I did.

I find the things I was worried about knowing, such as the way my food is treated before it gets to my plate, whether it be an animal or a vegetable, are things I’m really glad to know more about. The book is divided into three sections, the first being industrial farming where he sees the life cycle of corn, something I’d never given a ton of though to. In second section he looks into organic farming and exactly what “organic” means these days. The last section follows the author as he makes the meal of his life, hunting or growing each element of the meal.

I think what I liked best about the book is that it made me stop reading and contemplate what is being said. It put things into perspective that I’ve never really given that much time to. I think you’ll be happy you read it. I am.

This makes me so happy. A few weeks ago I received a letter from my grandma with this newspaper inside labeled “Celebrity Cook Book”. I flipped through it and on the last page there’s an article about my mom and her love of cooking. It’s accompanied by a big picture of her and me in the kitchen.

My mom passed away 10 years after this article was written and about 4 years before I became interested in cooking, so it was especially fun to read about the things she liked to cook. She always told me that one day I’d love to cook and of course, she was right. The article even said back then I liked to bake, something I don’t remember. I think a sweet tooth runs in the family.

The celebrity cookbook was just a nice little suprise that brightened my day. Now I have to get to baking! I hope you have a fantastic fall weekend.