Food Porn courtesy of NYTimes.com

Ok, well, the pie from the earlier post didn't turn out so well. I bought yellow plums because I thought they were so pretty, but actually they were way too tart and sour for a pie. SO, it was a fail.

Now, I of course saw Julie and Julia, as well as read many reviews for the film. One stated that it was definitely food porn. So, as a photographer interested in food and desires. I offer this image as food porn, found here. I thought I was going to view an article about Peruvian food in San Francisco, but got a slideshow instead, which for me is just as good. Enjoy...

I won't go into the technical use of color in these images, but it seems to be working very well.

Pie in the Oven

Well, I learned something today. As I am baking my first fruit pie, I made many mistakes, first off, I stupidly poured the filling into the crust (I was using crust without a pie pan, where you fold the crust over the edges of the filling) before I had thrown the crust onto the final making sheet. Oops! Huge mess, after spilling filling everywhere and tearing my fresh crust apart, I deciding to just throw it all into a 9" cake pan and cut my losses.

Well, turns out no matter how badly you destroy what could be a beautiful pie, fresh fruit covered in sugar and surrounded by pastry ALWAYS looks delicious. The pie isn't done yet, but I think it will still be delightful!

I am using the recipe for a plum pie from of course, Allrecipes.com, here. I was at the grocery store and saw yellow plums on sale from local farmers, and thought they were just too pretty to pass up, and it gave me an excuse to find a new recipe.

Idle Iraqi Date Farms....from NYTimes.com

Sad...

The production of most agricultural products in Iraq has been almost completely dissolved since Iraq's government has grown dependent on the production of oil for 90% of its exportations and revenue. Sometimes I feel like Americans don't understand that long history of this part of the world, where Iraq has had a healthy and self-sustaining agricultural economy for thousands of years.

Sorry to say, but we've ruined their country. Unfortunately, our mission was to thoughtlessly remove Hussein and in the process we removed many of the necessities and commodities required for agriculture to thrive. From a lack of running water and electricity, to complications of crop-dusting, for now a recovery of the date industry in Iraq seems to be a mirage at the edge of the Tigris; nothing more than a pleasant thought.

Read the NYTimes article here.

Image from rasamalaysia.com

Friday Night

Some people might go out drinking with their friends on a Friday night.. what do I do?...

I spend $115.00 on food at the grocery store.
*Sigh*

Whipped Cream

In my previous post on buttermilk muffins, I mentioned using sour cream in my whipped cream that I made last week. I thought this would be a great recipe to share as the extra ingredient allows the whipped cream to last much longer than it normally would with the traditional cream and sugar. So, here it is.

1 cup heavy cream
2 heaping tbs of sour cream
2 tbs of confectioners sugar
1/4 tsp of vanilla

Pour the cream into a bowl, use a metal bowl for the best results, begin whipping the cream. Plop in the two scoops of sour cream, continuing to whip the ingredients. While whipping, slowly sprinkle in the sugar, begin with 2 tbs, and beyond that you just add it to taste. As the whipping begins to show peaks, add the vanilla. Stop whipping when the peaks become firm (they should not be settling out as you whip), you want it to be stiff and fluffy.

As a side note, I have read many additions to a recipe like this that also include Brandy or liqeour. I added a capful of Godiva chocolate liquor along with the vanilla, and it was excellent. I'm sure you can't go wrong with the majority of liquors so long as you take into consideration what the topping is going onto.

Note:
People online were making a stink about giving this to your children if it has Brandy in it, get real, this is totally diluted (capful of liquor to one cup of cream) and just adds a subtle flavor of the alcohol. I'm sure the majority of the alcohol content evaporates during the whipping process.
Geez, there's always gotta be that party pooper. Give your kids food that tastes good, and hopefully they'll develop a palette that excludes things like Cool Whip.
;)

The Buttermilk Dilemma

So, I already had a recipe that I have been using for a while from Allrecipes, but there was something about it that just wasn't 'perfect' for me. I couldn't put my finger on it, so I started reviewing other recipes available for muffins and ran across one that mentioned buttermilk and another that mentioned sour cream. I am beginning to understand why people use these two ingredients occasionally in baked recipes. These fermented dairy products tend to add a little bit of a tangy flavor and they increase the fluffyness and texture of the baked good.

Last week I made a whipped cream that included sourcream, it was made the same as traditional whipped cream. The Difference: the sour cream increased the ability of the whipping to stand for multiple days without falling flat, that makes sense right, I mean, sour cream is a dense dairy product that doesn't flatten out over time, but whole cream is a liquid so even whipped, once the air fluffing it up is gone, it's back to it's liquid state. SO, the whipped cream I made 5 days ago is still good, still full of body and just as tasty if not more tasty than regular whipped cream.

This morning as I began debating what do change about my muffin recipe, I decided to do some quick internet research on the matter of substituting the buttermilk for the milk. Well, it looks like there's a debate on the internet community about this. Not one site seemed to be able to confirm wether or not buttermilk can replace milk in a recipe, there was a lot of talk about cream of tartar and baking soda (the recipe already calls for 2 tsp of baking soda), and calls for people not to change recipes. Ha, I decided then that I was going to do it, buttermilk is a decidedly southern ingredient and I figured adding it would only make it better, and if it ruined my batch of muffins, well at least I knew that this exchange of buttermilk to milk could not take place. So, here are some things I read about online, buttermilk added to pancakes and waffles makes them fluffy, buttermilk adds a flavor that cannot quite be described but as subtly tangy, and it is a fermented product so there is a little salt in it meaning you might need to add a little sugar cause it might not be sweet enough for you if you have a sweet tooth.

Well, the buttermilk helped, my muffins came out looking beautiful, they rose beautifully and actually they rose better than with the milk in the original recipe but they didn't overflow onto the edge of the cups, they had perfectly rounded tops. I did not change the baking soda content as I thought more than 2 tsp would start to alter the flavor of the muffins. The muffins stick together better with buttermilk, they are not as crumbly, and the texture and flavor is decidedly southern as had been mentioned elsewhere on the internet. They are perfect muffins, especially if you are going to grab one in the morning walking out the door because they don't fall apart like many muffins, and the coloring is a lovely whitish with kissed hints of brown on the muffin top, but not brown everywhere so they just look incredible.

Maybe its my southern roots, but from now on if a baked recipes seems a little off, my first inclination is to try it with buttermilk.

My altered recipe:

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup butter, cubed
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.

Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top.

Bake for 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done. Just as the tops begin to lightly brown.

As always, I would recommend fresh coffee and fresh fruit, my preference is strawberries, with these muffins.

Summer Simple: Shrimp Boil

What do you do when you don't want any dishes to clean?

Have a shrimp boil (in the south it can also be crawfish)!

The great part about this meal is everything is made in one large pot, and again there is little effort involved. I had this tonight, and it was worth it. As a poor college student, my friend and I ordered 1/2 lb of shrimp and that got us 15 smaller shrimp which was enough for the two of us without overstuffing, and there wasn't much leftover. Any excuse to eat seafood in the summer and I'm there, so when we realized we couldn't make sushi tonight I thought we could do a shrimp boil with potatoes and corn.

What you will need:
red potatoes (eye the amount based on the number of people you are serving)
corn cobs
1-2 lbs. of shrimp for about 3-4 servings
shrimp boil seasoning (if you don't have that around, salt and red pepper to taste)

Fill a large pot with water, leaving plenty of room at the top because you'll be adding lots of food with starches so there is a potential for boiling over.

Add shrimp boil seasoning to taste.

Bring water to a boil, and drop in potatoes, boil these for ten minutes before dropping the corn into the water, after about 6 minutes drop in the shrimp for 4-5 minutes, until the shrimp begin to float.

Remove the shrimp first, and place on ice. Then remove the corn and the potatoes, you might want to check the potatoes with a fork to be sure they are done, it should be easy to stick the fork into the potato.

Dinner is served! And if you are feeling bohemian, all of these foods can be eaten with your hands (but not right out of the water because it'll be really hot). Less dishes is always a blessing during the hot summer.

AllRecipes.com: Patti's Mussels a la Mariniere

For my virgin post to this Foodie blog, I get to show off a recipe I found on Allrecipes.com. An incredibly simple mussel recipe, this is something that could really impress a group of guests by showing both good taste, and a thoughtfully healthy meal.
I served garlic bread and a side dish of asparagus baked with parmesan, to stick with the mediterranean flavor of the meal.

The comments from the site had many suggestions for altering the recipe, but I'll be honest, I followed this recipe without altering anything and it was simply divine. My friend and I didn't stop to speak as we ate all 50 mussels between the two of us. Again, so simple, and if you happen to have a food processor (which I don't), the recipe will be all the simpler as the grunt work involves chopping a small amount of vegetables.

INGREDIENTS
50 fresh mussels, scrubbed and debearded
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup white wine
2 tablespoons margarine or butter
3 green onions, chopped
1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
3 roma (plum) tomatoes, chopped
salt and pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
Place mussels in a large bowl with cold water to cover. Let them soak for about 20 minutes to remove any dirt or sand.

Heat olive oil in a large stockpot over medium-low heat. Add garlic, and saute for one minute, but do not brown. Add the chopped green onion and tomatoes, and cook until almost tender. Pour in the white wine, and stir in the parsley and butter.

Bring to a boil, and allow to boil until the liquid has reduced by half, about 15 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Add the mussels to the pot, cover and allow to cook until the shells are opened, about 10 minutes. Transfer the mussels and sauce to a large serving bowl, discarding any unopened shells. Bon appetit!