CHIC AND YE SHALL FIND

Saturday, May 2, 2020

CHIC AND YE SHALL FIND: This Focaccia Isn’t Your Garden-Variety Flatbread ...

CHIC AND YE SHALL FIND: This Focaccia Isn’t Your Garden-Variety Flatbread ...: Link here: https://www.momknowsbest.net/2020/02/how-to-make-focaccia-bread-flowers.html My personal favorite below (I ...

This Focaccia Isn’t Your Garden-Variety Flatbread Anymore!

Link here: https://www.momknowsbest.net/2020/02/how-to-make-focaccia-bread-flowers.html

My personal favorite below (I am not a huge vegetable fan!)

I like this one, too! Recipe here: https://danbeasleyharling.com/bread/focaccia/

Created by Terri Culletto. Before baking

Created by Terri Culletto. After baking

For several weeks now, I have been seeing these beautifully decorated focaccia, dotted with vegetables on my Instagram feed.

I am fascinated by this pheonomin! You already know that I like beautiful food...plated or prepared and these works of art are beautiful and creative!

I quote the New York Times article which was published April 24th by Amelia Nierenberg

· Read the whole article here:

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/dining/focaccia-bread.html?smid=ig-nytcooking&utm_source=curalate_like2buy&utm_medium=curalate_like2buy_gnauQ5q1__85c57964-581f-41a6-8ae6-ca60659ba09c&crl8_id=85c57964-581f-41a6-8ae6-ca60659ba09c

"In kitchens across the world, focaccia gardens are blooming. On top of the flatbreads, cherry tomatoes open like petals, with long scallion stalks for stems. Yellow-pepper sunflowers stand tall with Kalamata olives at their center. Red onions bud in bushes made from fresh herbs.

As pandemic activities on social media go, this one might just be the prettiest. Home bakers decorate their focaccia with bouquets and swirls: The flat, white dough is an easy canvas, and just as simple to prepare. During a spring when so many of us are confined, decorating them allows many bakers to bring the outdoors inside by tending these edible gardens.

“It’s cathartic and therapeutic,” said Teri Culletto, a home baker in Vineyard Haven, Mass., who is thought to have started the trend. “If we had dinner parties to go to, you’d want everybody to have their socks on, because you’d knock them off.”

Ms. Culletto, 56, posted her first focaccia garden on Instagram in February 2019. Soon after, other bakers were making their own versions. They now poke around one another’s accounts, sharing decorating tips."

"Raw vegetables, for example, are tricky, because they have different water contents. Thicker pieces are better, as thinner ones might burn. Purple potatoes are excellent for the blue, indigo and violet parts of the rainbow, said Hannah Page, a 36-year-old high school teacher in Raleigh, N.C., who posts under @blondieandrye. Ms. Culletto discovered that dipping fresh herbs in lemon water might keep them greener in a hot oven"

My favorite ones are from @blondeandrye in Instagram.

The Bored Panda writes "This chef, who's behind the Instagram account Blondie and Rye, makes the most mesmerizing, meticulously-crafted, crispy snacks that are simply a feast for our eyes. Hannah—a North Carolina-based baker—has over 100k Instagram followers with whom she shares before and after pictures of her intricate, flour-covered creations. Some of them are scrupulously carved, while others are decorated with fruits and vegetables. Nonetheless, Hannah's audience continues growing as more and more followers are keeping track of her eye-catching pastries. "I’ve never felt so excited and inspired by bread!" one woman comments on one of Blondie and Rye's Instagram posts. "The most beautiful loaves I [have] ever seen!" another person noted."

https://www.boredpanda.com/carved-blondie-and-rye-bread/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=organic

Here are some of hers:

These are before baking.

These are after baking

Blondie and Rye can be found on Instagram, Pinterest and Facebook. I would say that she is famous now! She does share recipes. This one was on The Feedfeed:

https://thefeedfeed.com/blondieandrye/mixed-cheese-and-scallion-fougasse

She also carves bread like this, but that is a whole other blog!

For more ideas from other bakers, follow my Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/dailyelegance/bread-stuffs/

Thursday, April 30, 2020

WHEN SOMEONE GIVES YOU LEMONS, YOU MAKE.......

lemonade, limoncello, shortbread.... It all started with a gift of three lemons from a generous friend.

These are no ordinary lemons. They are as big as a man's fist!

It took a little prep work! We love the sparkling lemonade from World Market and always keep the empty bottles at both houses, mostly filled with cold water to serve at dinner parties.

I decided to try Limoncello. I am in quarantine with time on my hands! I used one lemon for this. (I didn't have much vodka on hand!)

Recipe here: https://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/limoncello-recipe-1916618

I used the other 2 lemons for home made lemonade. I chose to make the simple syrup. I had to use a big stock pot to hold it all!

Recipe here: https://temeculablogs.com/fresh-squeezed-lemonade-recipe/

The lemonade was good!

Then a few weeks later, I wanted to try some recipes with rosemary in them. I had experimented with lavender and basil. Why not lemons and rosemary? So I asked my generous friend for a lemon. This is what she brought!

We have a prolific prostrate rosemary plant! Rosemary is one of Don's favorite herbs. So I tried some recipes with rosemary in them.

My first experiment was making lemon rosemary shortbread. They have a subtle sweetness and are slightly savory.

Recipe here: https://www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/lemon-rosemary-shortbread/

Then onto Rosemary flatbread "crackers." The recipe says to roll these out, or if you want them crispier to use a pasta roller, which is what I did.

Recipe here; https://www.yummly.com/recipe/Crisp-Rosemary-Flatbread-Crackers-1709628

I also tried a Martha Stewart adaptation of parmesan rosemary crackers. Don thought these were more like a savory cookie. They needed to be much thinner, but they taste good!

Recipe here: https://alexandracooks.com/2011/12/30/glogg-parmesan-rosemary-crackers-new-years-eve-in-the-making/

I also have more lemon juice to play with.

Lemons can be fun to decorate with. In fact I am thinking that could be a great Christmas idea in Arizona next year. I will have to find friends with LOTS of lemons!

I might have to take the Limoncello back home and have a fancy dessert party with it!

I could serve lemonade with fancy lemon slices.

Or we could have a cool cocktail on a hot afternoon!

Or I could serve lemon sorbet in lemons. I find my electric juicer makes the best lemon "bowls."

Recipe here: https://whatscookingamerica.net/SorbetLemon.htm

Perhaps I should have decorated flower arrangements with them.

Why do we use lemons in cut flowers? Here is an excerpt on that answer.

"While cut flowers don't last forever, you can extend the length of time you'll enjoy them by employing a few simple tricks, including adding lemon juice and sugar to the water, or by lining a vase with lemon slices for visual interest (or, OK, to sometimes hide the stems). Here's really why you might want to put lemons in with your flowers.

Reason #1: To make your own flower food.

Often when you purchase a bouquet from the store, it comes with a little flower feeder packet. This is a combination of three substances: citric acid, sugar, and an antimicrobial agent. They work together to keep the cut blossoms going strong. (The citric acid helps open up those stems to allow water in, the sugar provides carbs, and the antimicrobial prevents fungus growth inside the vase.)

However, if you are using flowers from your own garden (or don't get the little packet of feeder), you can make your own mixture to keep those blossoms happy and looking good. Here's where you have to be careful about what you read on the internet: neither aspirin nor vinegar will help your plants.

Instead, make a mixture that duplicates the ingredients in the little packet. Mix 2 tablespoons of lemon juice (for the citric acid), 1 tablespoon sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon bleach (for the antimicrobial agent) into a quart of distilled water. The mixture both offers fertilizer for your cut flowers and opens their stems to water intake. Finally, it helps to reduce the microbes in your flower water, which slows down the decomposition of the stems.

Reason #2: For visual interest.

Lemon slices are pretty, in and of themselves, yellow and shiny with juice. Creative folk make use of their decorative qualities by placing them carefully in a large vase or pitcher. They cut the lemons into slim slices about 1/3 of an inch thick, then line the inside of the vase with them.

Do all those lemons make the water too acidic? They might if they were actually in the flower water. But here's the trick. In order to accomplish this cool look you use a slender vase inside the larger vase or pitcher.

Put cut flowers and their water (as well as cut-flower feeding mixture) into the slender vase. Then place this vase inside the larger vase or pitcher. The lemon slices get positioned between the two vases. You can see them from the outside but they are totally independent of the flowers and water."

https://www.hunker.com/13426344/why-put-lemons-in-a-vase-with-flowers

Or if you are like me, you might have some plastic lemons in an arrangement!

Ciao!

Thursday, April 16, 2020

LOVING LAVENDER TIME IN ARIZONA!

My Lavender is just beginning to bloom again! I want to take advantage of it this year.

About 6-8 years ago, we planted a small hedge in the south side of our front porch. It is about 5 feet tall now. It is French Lavender that we bought at Lowe's.

We also have a English or Spanish Lavender that we purchased at Costco in St. Louis Park last spring. We actually bought two and planted them in the planter on the front of our house (facing south.) They didn't bloom until almost a year later, here in Arizona. (We lost one on the trip down.)

The bees love them both.

I am partial to the French Lavender. Five years ago, before we built a courtyard in front of the house, I held a "tea" for several friends, outside, by the hedge. I was a little worried about the bees, but everything was fine!

My menu included foods with edible Lavender flowers.

This cookie is similar to the ones that I made. The recipe for these Lemon Lavender cookies is here: https://avirtualvegan.com/lemon-lavender-shortbread-cookies/#wprm-recipe-container-9489