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December 28, 2011
#ATXBOS: Building bridges through food blogger swap
We’re about to bid adieu to the swapping season: Cookie swaps, soup swaps, white elephant gift swaps. You name it, people will find a way to swap it.
The Austin Food Blogger Alliance, a nonprofit organization of Central Texas bloggers that I’ve been involved with since it formed about a year ago, decided to take the idea of a food swap and apply it to food bloggers.
Through Twitter, the AFBA publicity chair, Jodi Bart, connected with Rachel Blumenthal, who keeps track of the nearly 500 Boston-area food bloggers through her site, BostonFoodBloggers.com. They decided on a holiday gift exchange, which they deemed the #ATXBOS swap, that paired Austin food bloggers with Boston food bloggers.
I got matched with Lindsey Frances, who writes the lovely Made By Frances blog that features tons of original recipes and beautiful photographs. (She occasionally writes about food and feminism, a subject that is also dear to my heart.)
We had until Dec. 15 to mail our packages, and, of course, I waited until the last day to mail my package, which was filled with locally grown pecans, Confituras salted caramel pear butter, pancetta from Salt and Time, Kerbey Lane pancake mix, a jar of homemade Meyer lemon marmalade, a copy of Edible Austin and recent food sections from the Statesman and the Austin Chronicle.
I received Lindsey’s package just before heading out to Boise to visit my sister and her new baby for Christmas.
I haven’t had a chance to try the Taza hot chocolates yet, but the spiced nuts and chocolate-coated cashews are delicious. My favorite, however, is that Middle Eastern-inspired granola filled with sesame seeds and dates from Sofra Bakery in Cambridge, which is run by the chefs who own Oleana just across town.
(It was a good thing I devoured some of that Sofra granola before we headed to the airport the day after I got the package. We ended up getting stuck in San Francisco and having to drive 650 miles from SFO to Boise. I took these photos in Austin at 4 a.m. and that day of travel didn’t end until after 10 p.m. that night in Winnemucca, Nevada.)
“All taken together, I hope these give you the impression of a city changing and creating a new food culture based on new people and the flavors of the world,” Lindsey wrote in the handmade card she included in the package.
A total of 54 bloggers participated in the swap, which means more than 25 new friendships among people with similar interests who otherwise wouldn’t have met. Jodi Bart, whose Tasty Touring was named the top local food blog in Austin by the Chronicle earlier this year, has been recapping the #ATXBOS posts as they come in over on the AFBA blog. So many creative packages! It’s fun to see what people chose to include in their packages and their reactions to what they got.
Two of the swappers even had a chance to meet in real life over the holidays because their travel plans overlapped. A holiday gift, indeed.
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November 28, 2011
Ahead of Joe Gracey memorial on Sunday, Colman Andrews remembers his foodie friend
Joe Gracey, a pioneer of the Austin music who died of cancer earlier this month, will always be remembered as the influential DJ who lost his ability to speak, but it was his love of food — despite a lack of taste buds or, in his later years, an ability to eat anything other than liquids — that connected him with so many people around the world, including Colman Andrews, who founded Saveur magazine in the mid-1990s.
Gracey’s public memorial in Austin is slated for 2 p.m. Sunday at the Austin City Limits Live at the Moody Theater on Second Street, but last week, Andrews wrote a loving essay on his new site, The Daily Meal, memorializing Gracey and his gusto for life and all things good to eat.
Andrews had hired Gracey to write a number of food stories for Saveur through the years, including this recipe for Texas Coq au Vin, but their friendship lasted long after Andrews left the magazine. In his Daily Meal post, Andrews shares a number of emails — including one in which Gracey wrote, “I ain’t afraid of dying, but I will miss the oysters” — that they exchanged all the way through this fall:
Gracey made it to Aigne, [France] with Kimmie [Rhodes, his wife]. He did well for a few weeks, buying a grill and making fajitas for some friends who’d driven up from Spain and walking in the vineyards near the house (maybe thinking about that book?). On October 20th, he wrote, “France is great. Daughter is here but I feel very funky due to tailing off of radiation and chemo. I hope to recover fully before we have to leave! The little house is working perfectly with almost nothing left to buy or install or finish up. I still can’t damn eat but I cook some anyway.”
In a 2006 story about musicians who love to cook, former Statesman food writer Kitty Crider interviewed Gracey. “After I realized that I was not going to die, I was so awestruck at how much fun it was to be alive that I began to learn to cook and enjoy good wine, figuring that a day without good food was a day wasted,” he told her. “(Both music and food) can be viewed either as craft or art, or both. They are both ephemeral — you make them, you serve them and they are gone forever, which I like.”
A few years ago, I met Gracey because of his food blog, Letters to Graceyland and got to know him through the wonderful word of Twitter, but I never got to make good on promises to meet up with him when he was in Austin. It’s wonderful to get to know him a little better through this article from Andrews, but I’ll never forget that the day I became an aunt for the first time, the world lost someone as special as Joe Gracey.
Photos by Jay Janner and Laura Skelding for the Austin American-Statesman.
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November 9, 2011
Austin's Hilah Johnson wins spot on YouTube Next Chef program
That Hilah Johnson is on her way to the top.
The Austin video blogger, who won blog of the year in last year’s Republic of Austin blogger awards and was recently profiled in the Chronicle, was picked as one of 16 video bloggers who get to participate in YouTube’s NextChef program, a 12-week crash course in becoming a rock star video blogger.
Johnson and the 15 other participants, some who live as far away as India and Australia, already have established cooking web series, but the NextChef program gives them equipment, training and networking to take their series to the next level.
Austin Lau, YouTube partner programs manager who is coordinating both the NextChef and NextTrainer projects, says the goal is to “turbo charge” video bloggers who are already making great content. And it’s no coincidence that NextChef starts just as the holiday season is ramping up.
“There’s a spike in searches around this time of year for (food) keywords,” Lau says. Each week, the participants will have assignments to complete, which will be hosted both on YouTube’s NextChef homepage and on their own sites.
Johnson, whose videos are an informative as they are goofy, says she’s stoked for the opportunity to learn from experts and her fellow video bloggers, like Sara O’Donnell of the equally hilarious Average Betty, who is also among the participants. “We’ll not only get in front of more people, but…we’ll learn how to make better videos and how to market ourselves better.”
She and boyfriend/co-producer Christopher Sharpe have created 90 videos, so as they approach 100, they are thinking about ways to expand the show, both in frequency and content. (Johnson has also written and self-published two cookbooks, “Learn to Cook” and “The Breakfast Taco Book,” which have as much character as her popular videos.)
“It’s not going to change the way we do it…but it’s going to make us be better,” she says.
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August 3, 2011
Bloggers host potluck with pie ahead of SafePlace benefit at Drafthouse
If you’ve ever seen the movie “Waitress,” you know the power of pie.
The 2007 movie starring Keri Russell tells the story of a waitress at a cafe who happens to make some of the best pies the customers have ever had. She’s always wanted to open her own pie shop, but she finds herself pregnant with an abusive husband and little hope that she could actually pull it off.
Inspired by the movie — which had its own off-screen tragedy when Adrienne Shelly, the film’s director and screenwriter who also starred in the movie, , was killed after filming the movie, leaving behind a young daughter — the Austin Food Blogger Alliance has created a two-part event to benefit SafePlace, the Austin organization that provides assistance to people and families dealing with sexual and domestic violence.
The first half of the SafePlace fundraiser was a pie luck last weekend at House Wine. A few dozen bloggers brought pies to share with others and enter in a pie contest. (I made a cherry galette, recipe below, with a wordy titled inspired by the main character, Jenna, in the movie.)
The second half of the event is a screening of “Waitress” at the Alamo Drafthouse on South Lamar Boulevard at 1 p.m. on Aug. 21. The winning pie — a pecan pie from Cooking For Engineers blogger Michael Chu — will be served during the film, and local bakeries are donating pies that we’ll be selling after the show. Proceeds from ticket and pie sales will go directly to SafePlace, which last year fielded more than 12,000 calls from people, mostly women, in need of help.
You can buy tickets to the movie through the Drafthouse’s website, and if you can’t make the movie, you can still make a donation directly to SafePlace through their website.
Philanthropy projects like this one are at the heart of why my fellow Austin food bloggers and I created this alliance in the first place. There are almost 300 food blogs in Austin, and it only makes sense that we use our group to raise awareness and money for community organizations like SafePlace to help them do more good work.
Without The Pits, Life Ain’t A Bowl Of Cherries Cherry Galette
2 3/4 cups flour
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. butter (I used salted, but if you use unsalted, increase the amount of salt by 1/2 tsp.)
7 Tbsp. ice water
5 cups pitted cherries
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 eggs, beaten
Pulse flour, sugar and salt together in a food processor. Add butter and pulse until coarse crumbs form. Add water slowly while pulsing and combine just until dough holds together when pinched. It should still be crumbly at this point.
Turn dough out on clean countertop. Knead as few times as possible to bring the dough together. Divide in half. Lay out two pieces of parchment paper and press each section of dough into thick discs on top of each piece of parchment paper. Place another piece of parchment on top and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour (or in the freezer for 30 minutes).
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Remove dough and let sit for five minutes. Start with one disc and remove the top layer of parchment. Slowly roll out the dough from the center until the circle is about 12 inches in diameter.
Mix cherries with sugar, cinnamon and cornstarch.
Place dough on a rimmed baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place between 1 1/2 and 2 cups of cherry mixture in the center and spread cherries out to form a single layer that leaves about 1 1/2 inches of dough around the outside. Fold dough over the edges and brush with beaten egg. Repeat with second dough and the rest of the cherries. (You might not use all the cherries, depending on how big your galette is.)
Bake for at least an hour or up to an hour an a half until galettes are golden brown on the edges and filling is bubbly. Eat one and share the other with someone who could use a sweet treat to make them forget about life’s pits.
— Adapted from a recipe in “Martha Stewart’s Cooking School” (Clarkson Potter, 2008)
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April 28, 2011
Hunger Awareness Project: The humble beans and franks
It’s been a year since a group of bloggers and I did a hunger awareness project with the Capital Area Food Bank where we spent a week eating out of a typical food pantry offering and blogged about our experiences.
I turned my blog posts into a column for the newspaper, which gave me the chance to expand on how much I love rolled oats and the fact that I was on WIC benefits when I was pregnant with Julian.
Now that the Austin Food Bloggers Alliance is up and running, the philanthropy committee of that group is coordinating this year’s hunger awareness project, and instead of focusing on food pantry offerings, we’re blogging about SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits, which are commonly known as food stamps that people can apply for and use toward food purchases.
You can’t buy toiletries or prepared food, such as a rotisserie chicken, and yes, as SNAP critics are quick to point out, you can buy soda, chips and Little Debbie cakes, but the vast majority of the money is spent on regular old groceries. (Here is more information about what items are eligible and what aren’t.)
Advocates like Goddard say that by helping low-income families pay for food, the SNAP benefits allow them to pay bills or rent and/or buy other things like medicine, school supplies or other necessities that they might otherwise skip just to put dinner on the table.
And when things really get tough, imagine not being able to keep the electricity on, fill the gas tank or buy medications you or a family member needs. The SNAP benefits would guarantee that you and your family at least had something to eat while you tried to figure out how to get back on your feet.
Through the end of May, Austin bloggers will be writing about various aspects of SNAP (some, including Zesty Bean Dog, Dinner with Daneman, Girl Eats World, The Smart Kitchen and Lonely Gourmet have already started), and my first post is about a quintessential bare bones meal that my husband somehow turned into a spectacular feast earlier this week.
We had some leftover hot dogs and a few strips of bacon we wanted to use up, and he dug around the pantry and found a can of pinto beans and corn. I can’t explain how that with the addition of just a few other ingredients — cumin, garlic, onions, salt and pepper — he made the best tasting beans I think I’ve ever had. (Shhh, don’t tell my aunt Becca whose beans, which cook on the stove all afternoon and feature a variety of herbs and ground beef, were previously my favorite.)
He served these beans and franks — I have such a hard time not calling them frank and beans — with leftover potato salad and rice. An all-around inexpensive meal made from ingredients with a long shelf life, which is key if you can only go grocery shopping once or twice a month.
I know it’s a personal question, but have you ever received SNAP or WIC benefits? How did you spend them or try to get the most out of them? Do you have any tricks for spiffing up a can of beans?
Top two photos by Kristina Wolter of Girl Gone Grits.
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March 7, 2011
Austin Food Blogger Alliance launches
Y’all are probably tired of hearing me talk about what a great group of food bloggers we have in Austin.
But it’s true. There are nearly 250 food bloggers in Austin, and I come across more every week. In the past three years, through potlucks, happy hours and community outreach projects, we’ve taken our online community offline. I’m honored to call many of the bloggers my friends, and in the crowded-but-ever-growing world of blogging, I am ridiculously proud that we’ve chosen collaboration over competition.
Up until now, the group has been loosely based on a Facebook group that I started just after taking on this food blogging business myself. Now there are almost 500 members, a combination of bloggers, fans and social media-savvy members of the food community.
But as the group has grown, so has our potential.
Last year, as I was preparing for my own little family to expand, I realized that it was time to formalize the group into a self-sustaining organization that would have a much bigger impact than what can be accomplished on Facebook.
Today, we’re launching the Austin Food Blogger Alliance, a nonprofit organization that aims to 1) set an ethical standard to which members will strive and 2) be a resource for each other and the community at large. (Here is the link to the full press release.)
We’ll continue to host potlucks, happy hours and other social gatherings as a way to strengthen the Austin food blogging community, and because it’s not just me planning the events, we’ll be able to host regular educational classes on topics like food photography, web design, recipe development, etc. and community outreach projects like the Hunger Awareness Project.
We’ll be having a launch event after SXSW, where you can find out more about member benefits and how to become one, but in the meantime, you can sign up to receive more information on the website and follow the group on its Twitter account, @atxfoodblogs.
Our first official AFBA event will be in April, and we’re planning to host at least one social, educational or outreach project a month.
For me both personally and professionally, this is an exciting evolution, and I can’t wait to see how the group grows and changes over the coming years. Not a food blogger? Don’t worry; there will be ample opportunities for food-loving Austinites to participate, especially with fundraisers and other events that benefit the community, so stayed tuned.
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September 8, 2010
Introducing guest blogger, Statesman food intern Layne Lynch
If you’ve been reading closely or following me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll know that I’m about ready to give birth to my second child. The little boy, whom we’ll probably call Avery (not in any way after the flora- and fauna-filled island in Louisiana where Tabasco hot sauce is made), is coming this week, which means that I officially start maternity leave today.
It’s going to be a crazy eight weeks, adjusting to life with a newborn and an almost 4-year-old. I’m really going to try to unplug during that time and enjoy being with my family, but I’ll be sharing some of the food-related observations and anecdotes about once a week on Relish Austin. (There’s always the wonderful, irresistible world of status updates and tweets.)
But while I’m gone, look for food news and updates from Layne Lynch, the Statesman’s food intern this fall. Layne just got back from a summer internship with Food Network magazine and is incredibly passionate about food.
Now, I’ll turn things over to her and let her introduce herself and explain why she’s pursuing a career in food writing and what it means to Relish Austin…
Why thank you, Addie! I can’t express how grateful I am to be able to contribute to a blog that I myself follow closely for its coverage of Austin food and food personalities.
For a long time, I never really thought of writing about food as a choice, but more as blessing. Of all of the career paths I have considered pursuing such as an English teacher, a personal chef, a nutritionist, and even a travel writer, what drew me to cuisine? Truth be told, up until about three years ago, I didn’t have a clue that I wanted to write about cuisine; yet one piece of advice changed my life and made me want to be a food writer.
Entering the University of Texas at Austin, I questioned whether or not college was the right decision for me. Although I loved to write, succeeded in academics, and looked pretty cute in burnt orange, a huge part of me desired to go to the French Culinary Institute in New York City. However, after talking with my parents, I realized that I owed it to them and to myself to at least give college a shot. They had worked so hard their whole lives and wanted me to have the chance they never had: the opportunity to attend a prestigious university.
Yet, after my first semester, I had serious thoughts of dropping out. Although I loved my writing and English classes, I always felt nauseated in the moments I found myself stuck reading pages of Texas history when I wanted to be reading pages of Gourmet magazine. Just a few weeks before Christmas break, I made the decision to drop out of college. However, when I voiced my decision to one of my professors, he gave me a piece of advice that completely changed my life and ultimately inspired me to pursue a journalism degree.
“People get caught up in the idea that they have to choose one career path and never wander from it. Often times, the best roads to take are the ones that intersect with each other. Have you ever considered combining your two passions of writing and food? Perhaps you should be a food writer?”
This teacher’s advice inspired me to pursue a career that I never even really knew existed, and from that moment on, I began opening my eyes to the possibility of becoming a food writer. I joined my student newspaper as the Senior Food Writer and began exploring the local Austin food scene. Every day seemed like a gift because I got to write about what I loved and meet people who loved cuisine just as much as I do. Ultimately, my passion and enthusiasm for culinary journalism led me to Food Network magazine and, currently, the Austin American-Statesman, where I continue to explore all the food world throws at me.
I learn something new every day and always remain hungry for more, no pun intended. I can’t wait to explore the Austin food scene with all of you, and even though I too will miss Addie, let’s have some fun and always stay hungry for more.
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July 19, 2010
Bloggerly Love: Gelatin never looked so sexy
Gelatin is so hot right now.
More than a century after Jell-O introduced the product as we now know it, gelatin-based desserts are back in a big way (Brooklyn’s Jello mold mistress was recently featured on the Splendid Table), and Austin blogger Casey Grim is making just about the sexiest jiggly treats I’ve ever seen.
Her blog, the Modern Gelatina, features creative boozy desserts like this vodka-infused basil blueberry lemonade.
Forget Jell-O shots. Using fresh fruits, quality spirits and inventive simple syrups, Grim makes desserts that are in line with the serious approach bartenders are now taking to cocktails.
Grim shares a handful of tips and tricks for making your own, but not all the posts come with a recipe.
“I don’t want to give away all my secrets,” she writes.
Photo by Casey Grim.
Do you write a blog about food? E-mail me about it, and I’ll add it to the blogroll on the left side of this page. There are more than 200 food blogs in Central Texas, and the Austin Food Bloggers group on Facebook is our hub.
Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: Bloggerly love, Desserts
January 28, 2010
Bloggery Love: Grapefruit Marmalade from the Cosmic Cowgirl
Stephanie McClenny’s food blog, the Cosmic Cowgirl, has only been around for a year, but she says it’s not only revived her passion for photography, it gives her an excuse to spend even more time cooking. Whether she’s cooking tamales with friends or making marmalade from Texas citrus that’s in season, she loves being in the kitchen - camera in hand - creating something delicious for her husband, Houston, who has learned that he can’t eat anything until it has been photographed.
McClenny is a school nurse by day, but when she’s not at school, she’s trying new recipes from her favorite food magazines or other food blogs. The blog also challenges her to take on projects like canning that she hadn’t attempted before. “I’ve never taken a cooking class,” she says. “I like to figure things out myself … and the blog helps me remember how I did it for the next time.”
Texas Ruby Red Grapefruit Marmalade
Honey version:
5 medium-sized Texas `Rio Star’ grapefruit, cut in half horizontally
Juice of 4 lemons
6 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 cup local honey
Vanilla version:
5 medium-sized Texas `Rio Star’ grapefruit, cut in half horizontally
Juice of 4 lemons
8 cups sugar
1 vanilla bean, split open lengthwise, seeds removed, pod reserved to add to pot
Put grapefruit halves in a large soup pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer, uncovered until very soft, about 2 hours, adding more water from a simmering kettle if needed. Drain and set aside until cool enough to handle. Place a cutting board inside a roasting pan and cut grapefruit into large chunks, removing seeds as you go.
Place chunks (rind, pith, flesh and all) in a food processor fitted with the metal blade, and whirl, in batches, until pieces are finely chopped. Add back to large pot with remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. Set pot to simmer and stir frequently until mixture reaches jell point, tasting as you go to see if it needs more sugar. Allow mixture to sit off heat for about 5 minutes, and then stir before filling jars. Process in a water bath for 15 minutes. Makes about 11-12 half-pint jars.
— Adapted by Stephanie McClenny from a recipe by Nigella Lawson
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January 7, 2010
Fun new Austin food blogs, plus Tyson Cole does fast-casual sushi
UPDATE:
One more blog to add, which combines both items in this blog post from earlier this week. Uchiko is chef Tyson Cole’s newest blog home, where he’s writing about the process of opening his second Austin restaurant of the same name. The restaurant, at 4200 N. Lamar Blvd., is slated to open in the next few months, so expect plenty of construction and menu-development posts until then. Like sushi, Cole seems to have a knack for this blogging this, gorgeous food photos and all.
Just when Austin had reached its food blog capacity, a bevy of fun Austin food blogs has come into my radar in the past few months.
I finally had a chance to add 30, yes 3-0, newish food blogs to the blogroll on the left hand side of the page. So, peruse the goods and hopefully you’ll find a new blogger or two who tickles your fancy.
I’m particularly excited about these:
The Limited Palate Gourmet — Eleven-year-old Owen Duffy likes pizza, burgers, chicken, french fries and hot dogs, but that doesn’t mean he can’t approach eating like a restaurant critic.
Year of the Pizza — Seth Mazow and his fiancee Erin won Homeslice Pizza’s Hands on an Eggplant Sub contest for the second year in a row, which means the blog that chronicles their year of free pizza will continue for at least another year.
Diary of a Pizza Girl — The highs, but mainly the lows, of delivering pizzas in Austin as told by an anonymous pizza delivery girl. After reading a few posts, I guarantee you’ll think twice before giving your delivery person a $2 tip.
To Serve Man — This anonymous blogger, a longtime restaurant server who also has a master’s degree in writing, shares all the juicy insight into the world of fine dining.
Food and Water — Garrett Weber-Gale, an Austin swimmer who won two Olympic gold medals in 2008, blogs about healthy cooking and life as a professional swimmer who may or may not be eying the 2012 Olympics in London.
Austin Eats Sandwiches — I love group blogs, but only as long as the group of people who write them stay fired up about the topic. This blog, which started as a class project for a group of UT students, covers nearly every angle of sandwiches in Austin.
Farmhouse Table — Elizabeth Winslow, co-owner of Farmhouse Delivery, which delivers CSA produce, eggs, meat and other local products to customers in Austin, could write an SEO-overloaded blog about her business, but instead, she instead writes eloquently and thoughtfully about food and cooking, with plenty of sexy photos and recipes.
The Jemima Code — Culinary journalist Toni Tipton Martin is restoring the long-tarnished image of African American cooks through new blog and as she renovates the 134-year-old Limerick-Frazier House in East Austin.
The Label Says Paleo — A new year, a new trendy diet, right? Not according to these bloggers, who are chronicling their attempts to eat like our ancestors: Eat meat, fish, vegetables, fruit and nuts and take out grains, legumes, dairy, salt, refined sugar and processed oils.
If I’ve accidentally left your blog off the list, please e-mail me so I can add it. Also, if you’re a food blogger and would like to participate in the thriving community of bloggerly-types here in Austin, join the Austin Food Bloggers group on Facebook, which is where we organize happy hours, field trips and potlucks.
The Hungry Engineer was in Birmingham, Alabama, over the holidays, which gave her and her husband a chance to try Tyson Cole’s newest venture: fast-casual sushi. Maki Fresh opened in 2008 as a partnership between Cole and John Cassimus, who founded the Alabama-based chain Zoe’s Kitchen, which recently opened an Austin location. Hungry Engineer blogger April Woods says it’s not trying to be Uchi but that it’s worth seeking out all the same.
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December 16, 2009
Even at food bloggers' swap, it's not about the cookies
In today’s Relish Austin column, I spilled the beans that cookie swaps, or any kind of holiday baking for that matter, aren’t really about the cookies, but rather the memories and stories behind them.
For the Statesman’s Cookie Swap, which concludes with a free party from 6 to 8 p.m. at Stubb’s on Thursday (click here for more details), it was clear from the start that nostalgia has more to do with holiday treats than anything else.
In almost every one of the cookie recipes exchanged on the Austin360 recipe database in the past few weeks, the person submitting the recipe recalls who first baked the cookie, how it was passed down to them and the reaction of friends and neighbors who get the cookies as a gift.
“I have grown up with this cookie and life as a Southern child wouldn’t be complete without it,” wrote Hattie Hazen of her favorite recipe for cowboy cookies.
One reader shared a story about an ice box cookie recipe her mother got from a friend during World War II, when sugar was rationed. “(Her friend) gave Mother some sugar so she could make the cookies. Our cow and hens provided the butter and eggs.”
The cookies we make with our kids tend to hold the sweetest memories: “When our children were young and at home, we always made these for Christmas,” a reader wrote of these paintbrush cookies. “Times have changed, our children are all away from home. This must have been a good memory for them as I know some of them now do these cookies with their children.”
On Thursday, judges Rebecca Rather (Rather Sweet Bakery and Cafe in Fredericksburg), Rebecca Wallace Ford (founder of Word of Mouth Catering), Mark Chapman (Texas Culinary Academy pastry instructor), Anna Ginsberg (Cookie Madness blogger and 2006 Pillsbury Bake-Off winner) and Russell Williams, a tweeting pedicabber who has been known to accept cookies as payment, will try to separate nostalgia from a good recipe to pick the winner of the Statesman’s Holiday Cookie Swap contest.
The Statesman’s virtual cookie swap is one of hundreds of recipe exchanges that will take place this holiday season. On Sunday, I attended a cookie swap with my beloved food blogger friends at the house of Carla Crownover.
Although the bloggers, as you might expect, brought some fantastic cookies, it was most rewarding to hear the stories they shared before the actual swapping began of where the recipe came from and why they made it.
And even though we all went home with more cookies than we could eat in a lifetime, the cookie swap was just a really good excuse to spend time with these dear friends before the holiday rush swept us away from each other.
You wouldn’t believe the variety of cookies Austin’s awesome bloggers brought: Hawaiian snowballs from Lisa is Cooking, Italian wine cookies from co-host Cecilia Nasti, pecan bars and candied fruit and bourbon cookies from Cookie Madness, lemon-lavender shortbread from Fete and Feast, truffles from Rebeccamendations and Austin Farm to Table and bacon chocolate chip cookies from Eat This Lens. (The hosts are working on compiling all the recipes, so I’ll share a link to more recipes when I get them.)
It’s hard to believe that it’s been less than a year since our first food blogger potluck in April. Who would have thought that so many friendships would have come from this group. Cookies or no, I felt so lucky to share Sunday with them.
I hope to spend some time with many of you on Thursday night at Stubb’s, but if not, consider this my holiday wish for you and your families: Enjoy time with your friends and family throughout the year, and remember, it’s not about the cookies.
Permalink | Comments (3) | Categories: 2009 Cookie Swap, Bloggerly love, Cooking
June 17, 2009
Blogger recipe: Unprocessed queso from Food Renegade
Kristen Michaelis is a real food activist.
Through her blog Food Renegade, the Leander resident shares her passion for traditional foods — organic produce, fermented foods and beverages, raw milk and grass-fed and pastured meats and dairy products — and educates readers about the ills of a food system that relies on corn, antibiotics, pesticides and animal confinement.
Michaelis, who also owns a copywriting business and is a nutrition and wellness coach, says one of her goals is to help readers learn how to change what they eat in order to improve their health and prevent illnesses such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease. “I want to give people the tools and confidence they need to radically change their diet, to rebel against the dominant food culture,” she writes.
Michaelis challenged herself earlier this year to create a recipe for queso that only used real cheese, rather than the processed kind that nearly every cheese dip in town relies on. She says that the results were even better than she imagined: smooth, creamy and rich. Home cooks won’t have to rely on cheese that comes in a box ever again.
Creamy Mexican Cheese Dip
1 egg yolk (from pastured hens)
1 Tbsp. arrowroot powder (or organic corn starch)
1 Tbsp. milk (from grass-fed cows)
1 cup cream
1 cup milk
8 oz. grated cheddar cheese
4 oz. cream cheese (optional)
14-oz. can diced tomatoes and green chiles, drained
salt and chipotle chile powder to taste
To create a thickener that will bind the cheese together and keep it from turning into a nasty, oily mess when it melts, mix egg yolk, arrowroot powder and milk until smooth. Next, pour cream and milk into a saucepan and warm over medium heat. Gently stir in the thickener and continue stirring until the cream starts to thicken.
Once your sauce begins to thicken, add in the grated cheddar cheese and small spoonfuls of the cream cheese (homemade from grass-fed cream is best). Lower heat to medium low, then continue stirring until the cheese melts and you have a deliciously creamy sauce.
Remove the sauce from heat, and stir in the tomatoes and diced green chiles. Then add salt and chipotle chili powder to taste, being sure to stir everything until evenly distributed.
(Photo by Kristen Michaelis.)
(If you write a blog about food, e-mail me and tell me about it. Maybe your recipe will make it into print.)
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May 29, 2009
Blogger recipe: Lisa is Cooking's favorite sugar cookies
Lisa Lawless doesn’t post many recipes on her food blog Lisa is Cooking, but when she does, it’s worth your while to file them away. Lawless usually creates (and beautifully photographs) dishes from magazines, cookbooks or food books and does a thorough job of explaining the ins and outs of how she made it. She has a keen eye for good food. A post earlier this year about a tart with greens, goat cheese and currants inspired my own greens-and-cheese tart that I took to a food blogger potluck earlier this month. Lawless brought a strawberry tart and sugar cookies to share with fellow food bloggers.
Her Texas-shaped cookies were made with the Ethel’s Sugar Cookies recipe her mom got out of a 1960s version of the Betty Crocker Cookbook. Lawless says this is the tried-and-true recipe that she will always use, even though the new Betty Crocker books include a different sugar cookie recipe.
Lawless says one of the keys to making the perfect sugar cookie is to pull them out of the oven at the exact second they are done. Any brown on the bottom or corners won’t do. As for the icing, Lawless is a fan of Martha Stewart’s royal icing (1 cup confectioners’ sugar, 1 egg white, 3 or 4 drops of freshly squeezed lemon juice mixed together until smooth and creamy. Add more sugar is it’s too runny.)
Ethel’s Sugar Cookies
2 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 tsp. vanilla
Sift flour, baking powder and salt into a medium mixing bowl. Cream together butter and sugar, add eggs and vanilla and mix until light and fluffy. Add dry ingredients a little at a time and mix until combined. Refrigerate overnight.
When you’re ready to make the cookies, pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out dough and cut cookies. Bake for six minutes for medium-sized cookies.
(Photo by Lisa Lawless)
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