cookiesinheaven

Labels: Holidays, Music, YouTube

SUCCULENT pork ribs with a spicy chipotle sauce, sweet zucchini braised to a buttery softness, the miracle of a Meyer lemon posset (like a mousse but with livelier flavor and a more elegant texture), a spectacular summer pie packed with nectarines and berries. All of the recipes published in the Food section in 2007 were so appealing that it was especially especially hard this time around to choose the year's 10 best.

• Nectarine-berry pie with black pepper crust
• Lemon Upside Down Cake

• SPQR - 1911 Fillmore St. (x Pine) - The City
• Ubuntu 1140 Main St. (x Pearl) - Napa. Restaurant and Yoga Studio.
• Nick's Cove 23240 Highway 1 - Marshall (Point Reyes) A Pat Kuleto restaurant. Need we say more?

• Tropical Carrot Cake
• Raspberry Cheesecake Bars
• No Knead Bread

• Bruleed Key Lime Tarts
• Double Ginger Sugar Cookies
• Rich and Creamy Butterscotch Pudding

Labels: blogtopia, New Year, Newspapers, Recipes

Bella Dolce is a Santa Barbara catering company specializing in beautiful cookies, petite sweets, luscious cupcakes and exquisite wedding cakes.

....Pastry Chef Eileen Randall Cook was raised in Santa Barbara and realized at an early age that if someone would pay you money to make cookies when you grew up, that was the thing to do.

Eileen left Santa Barbara for the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco and a pastry internship at Campton Place Hotel. She graduated from the CCA Chef Program in 1989. She then moved to Los Angeles where she mastered breakfast pastry at the Hotel Bel Air, did food styling for print and film, catering for the stars, taught cooking classes and managed the cooking school at Montana Mercantile in Santa Monica.

Since returning to Santa Barbara in 1992 Eileen was the pastry chef at Brigitte’s (now Opal) and Executive Pastry Chef at the Wine Cask. There she was responsible for the design and production of desserts for the Wine Cask Restaurant and catering company, The University Club and Polo Club. - Bella Dolce's website

Labels: cupcakes, Santa Barbara

Labels: Holidays, Music, YouTube

Crushcakes Cupcakery was a dream realized by Shannon Feld. Shannon previously originated and operated Bitterman’s Deli. One of her favorite memories from that experience was all the happiness she brought to her loyal customers through her passion for food and award winning customer service.

Since leaving Bitterman's, Shannon has greatly missed the energy and excitement of sharing her love for food with Santa Barbara. For as long as she can remember, Shannon has been in search of the perfect dessert. While others enter into a restaurant looking for the ideal wine pairing for their meal, Shannon instead asks first for the dessert list. To Shannon, the ultimate satisfaction can only be found in that decadent final course. To satisfy her own cravings, Shannon has created an amazing dessert in her scratch made cupcakes and she is excited to share them with Santa Barbara at Crushcakes Cupcakery.

• peace cake - make cupcakes not war with this cool vanilla bean cake topped with wild tie-dye frosting and a chocolate peace sign
• crushcake - our signature red velvet cake topped with a chocolate heart dipped into sour cream frosting
• bananas foster- crushed banana cake topped with vanilla frosting and rum caramel swirls
• raspberry kir royale - juicy raspberry cake topped with bubbly champagne frosting

Labels: cupcakes, Santa Barbara

Broguiere's Eggnog. The champaign of the 'nog.

I picked up a bottle (yes...glass bottle) at our local Santa Barbara Gelson's but it sometimes gets a little bit difficult to find. (Chowhound has posts on folks searching for the liquid gold stuff....)

Labels: Christmas, Drinks, Favorite Foods

It could not have happened at a worse time. A major snowstorm was howling outside. Whole Foods supermarket at Bishops Corner in West Hartford was jammed with shoppers anxious to get home for dinner.

Suddenly, the computer crashed. None of the cash registers could function. Ted Donoghue, the assistant manager running the store on the afternoon of Dec. 13, consulted associates and made a snap decision:

All customers passing through the registers would get their food for free until the computers were working again. - Courant.com

Labels: Whole Foods

Labels: Christmas, Music, San Francisco

Some 5,500 pounds of basil grown in Mexico and sold in the United States is being recalled because of fears it may be infected with salmonella. - KSBY

The Southern California distributor sold the basil to restaurants and other food service customers, but it was unknown whether the other distributors sold to food service customers or retailers, he said.

No illnesses have been reported.

U.S. Food and Drug Administration inspectors detected the possible contamination during a random check as the basil passed over the Otay Mesa border crossing in San Diego County, Martinez said. - AP

5,500 is alot of the fragrant green stuff.

Labels: Recalls

I think it started about a year ago, when the students in one the classes I was teaching found out that I was going to cooking school. "Will you make us something?" they begged. I pictured myself whipping up something in the French tradition from my growing pile of recipes and modifying it to serve thirty or so college freshmen. "No," I replied sensibly. "But if you're good, I'll make you cookies!"

My mom always made a lot of cookies (and fudge) around Christmas time. While I liked the Russian tea cakes and chocolate chip cookies, the green tree cookies were always my favorite.

I’m not entirely sure why I liked them so much. They aren’t overly sweet. They don’t have a particularly strong flavor. It may just be that I could eat a lot of them without getting overwhelmed by them.

Last week I spent the afternoon baking Christmas cookies with a group of culinary-minded Googlers. Traditionally, this cookie is not just a festive holiday snack; it also makes a great homemade gift and an absorbing arts and crafts project. Our little get-together not only resulted in some melt-in-your mouth treats, but also allowed us to roll up our sleeves and get creative. Check out the photo album from our baking session, and try my recipe for buttery shortbread cookies.

For just about every holiday, there are some flavors that just seem to naturally fit right into the overall feel of the season. Christmas in particular has a lot of flavors associated with it, as families often stick with the same traditional foods year after year. Cranberry Orange bread is a staple not only for my family, but for lots and lots of the people I know (even those who don’t celebrate Christams), so while anything that has a combination of cranberries, oranges and nuts will be tasty year-round, it tends to be evocative of the holidays for me - especially if it’s crisp and cold outside.

Oranges and pecans are the two main flavor players in these cookies, which means that they are an excellent holiday cookie as far as I’m concerned. I found the original recipe in a old issue of Food & Drink - an outstanding food magazine published by the LCBO - and it called for a lime-pecan combination. The lime sounded zesty and appealing, but with a tree full of just-ripe blood oranges I couldn’t resist mixing it up a little bit.

Labels: Cookie Exchange, Cookies, Holidays, Recipes

• Bread Machine Baking Month
• National Candy Month
• National Egg Month
• National Hot Tea Month
• National Meat Month
• National Oatmeal Month
• National Soup Month
• National Wheat Bread Month
• Prune Breakfast Month

• January 1: Bloody Mary Day
• January 1: Apple Gifting Day
• January 2: National Cream Puff Day
• January 3: Chocolate-Filled Cherry Day
• January 4: National Spaghetti Day
• January 5: National Whipped Cream Day
• January 6: Bean Day
• January 6: National Shortbread Day
• January 7: National Tempura Day
• January 8: English Toffee Day
• January 9: National Apricot Day
• January 10: Bittersweet Chocolate Day
• January 11: Milk Day
• January 11: Hot Toddy Day
• January 12: Curried Chicken Day
• January 13: National Peach Melba Day
• January 14: National Hot Pastrami Sandwich Day
• January 15: Strawberry Ice Cream Day
• January 16: National Fig Newton Day
• January 16: International Hot & Spicy Food Day
• January 17: Hot-Buttered Rum Day
• January 18: Peking Duck Day
• January 19: National Popcorn Day
• January 20: National Buttercrunch Day
• January 20: National Cheese Lover's Day
• January 20: National Granola Bar Day
• January 21: New England Clam Chowder Day
• January 22: National Blonde Brownie Day
• January 23: National Rhubarb Pie Day
• January 24: National Peanut Butter Day
• January 25: National Irish Coffee Day
• January 26: National Pistachio Day
• January 27: Chocolate Cake Day
• January 28: National Blueberry Pancake Day
• January 29: National Corn Chip Day
• January 30: National Croissant Day
• January 31: Brandy Alexander Day

Labels: food holidays

• 2 oz. Brady's Irish Cream liqueur
• Splash of Celtic Crossing liqueur
• Canned whipped cream
• 1 serving hot chocolate mix
• Cinnamon, ground or stick
• Fresh chocolate shavings to garnish

What you will need:

• 1 stick butter (unsalted)
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup flour
• 2 teaspoons of lemon zest

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour the madeleine pans. (These can be of various sizes). Melt the butter and let it cool down. Beat together eggs, sugar and salt, then add the vanilla. Gently fold in the flour using a spatula. When blended, fold in the butter very carefully, but quickly so it does not settle at the bottom of the mixing bowl.

Spoon the batter into the pans and bake for about 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

Turn out onto a cooling rack and once completely cool, dust with confectioners sugar.

Your Madeleine cookie may be stored in an airtight tin for up to 4 days. If you wish as an alternative, you may substitute the lemon zest with orange zest.

And there you have it!

Labels: Chocolate, cocoa, Cookies, Drinks, rain, Recipes, weather

Labels: Christmas, Music, YouTube

Labels: baking supplies, magazines

Menu for Hope is an annual fundraising event in support of the UN World Food Programme. Five years ago, the devastating tsunami in Southeast Asia inspired me to find a way to help, and the very first Menu for Hope was born. In 2006, Menu for Hope raised US$60,925.12 to help the UN World Food Programme feed the hungry.

Each year, food bloggers from all over the world join forces to host the Menu for Hope online raffle, offering an array of delectable culinary prizes. For every US$10, the donor receive a virtual raffle ticket toward a prize of their choice. This year, the prizes include once in a lifetime experiences such as touring the elBulli laboratory with Ferran Adrià , dining on a historic British meal prepared by Heston Blumenthal, or joining Harold McGee on a lunch date to satisfy a lifetime's worth of cooking curiosity. You can also tag along with your favorite blogger on a tour of their favorite markets, restaurants, or even receive a care package fashioned especially for you from your favorite bloggers themselves. All you need is $10 and a bit of luck.

We may never eradicate hunger from the face of the earth, but why should that stop us from trying?

Labels: Blogger Challenge, blogs, Donating

Questionable Christmas Cookie

Labels: Cookies, Flickr Friday

Hoping to capitalize on the growth of foodie culture, Bon Appétit is remaking itself as a younger, more accessible title. Starting with the January issue, it will introduce a new logo featuring a lowercase font with a rotating color for the "o" and accent mark. "Think of it in fashion terms: We've simply changed and freshened our lipstick, or, perhaps, traded in our pair of sensible shoes for something a little more stylish," editor in chief Barbara Fairchild writes in the editor's letter.

The last time Bon Appétit changed its logo was 17 years ago. Now, with the help of design director Matthew Lenning, hired from GQ in the spring, it's pushing its "accessibility" and its "sophisticated but not intimidating" qualities. Bon Appétit's Web site will also be relaunched, though the timing is still being determined.

Beyond the logo, the magazine will begin catering to a younger audience with more how-to. "The younger reader needs to know the techniques," said Fairchild. "We're going back to step by step." - WWD

Labels: bon appetit, graphic design, magazines

TCHO is a new kind of chocolate company for a new generation of chocolate enthusiasts.

TCHO is where technology meets chocolate; where Silicon Valley start-up meets San Francisco food culture.

TCHO is obsessively good dark chocolate.

TCHO is a direct, transparent connection between the farmers and the consumers, from the pod to the palate, from high concept to sensual experience.

TCHO is an innovative method for you to discover the chocolate you like best.

The Company.

TCHO is serious about chocolate, we aren’t just “re–melters” (like the majority of people who work with chocolate), we are manufacturers, with our very own factory capable of producing 4000 metric tons per year — joining only a dozen other major manufacturers in the US.

TCHO was founded by a Space Shuttle technologist turned chocolate maker and a grizzled industry veteran who set up chocolate factories for 40 years from Costa Rica to Germany.

TCHO’s team has deep experience from Silicon Valley to Berlin, from Fair Trade to Ferraris, from chocolate start up to Web start up.

TCHO isn’t funded by VCs or investment bankers, but friends and families brought together to invest in a dream. And every employee is an owner.

TCHO is scrappy and high tech – recycling and refurbing legacy chocolate equipment and mating it with the latest process control, information, and communications systems.

TCHO’s social mission is the next step beyond Fair Trade – helping farmers by transferring knowledge of how to grow and ferment better beans so they can escape commodity production to become premium producers.

Labels: California, Chocolate

Labels: Cookies, Recipes

McDonald’s Corp. will help franchisees pay the $1 billion-plus cost of its bid to compete with Starbucks across the country next year.

The company told franchisees this week that it will pay up to 40% of the costs to remodel restaurants to accommodate the machines needed to make lattes, mocha drinks and other specialty beverages. McDonald’s USA President Don Thompson said last month said the remodeling could cost as much as $75,000 for each of the 13,800 U.S. restaurants.

The price McDonald’s pays per restaurant will vary depending on the amount of remodeling needed, but if the company pays $30,000 a restaurant, the total would exceed $400 million. In addition to the cost of remodeling, franchisees would have to pay about $25,000 per restaurant for the new beverage equipment. - Chicagobusiness

$400 million. That's a lot of $1 burgers they'll have to flip. Why don't they concentrate on greening up their business, putting their weight behind better food safety regulation, etc. instead of branching off into a realm they are sure to lose.

Labels: Fast Food, McDonalds

Labels: Passings, YouTube

Labels: Chocolate, disaster, labor

and we have one of the grandest here in Santa Barbara. The Arlington Theatre.

I was walking back home the other night and they were changing the marquee for Snoopy On Ice...so I stopped and snapped a few photos.

Labels: life

Labels: advertisers

Rugelach (Hebrew: רוגלך). (Other spellings: Rugulach, Rugalach, Rogelach, Rugalah, Rugala.) A Jewish pastry of Ashkenazic origin. The name is a Yiddish diminutive form of the Hebrew, רוגלית (roglìt), meaning "creeping vine," perhaps due to the rolled-up shape of the cookie.

It can be made with a cream cheese dough, though the dough is more typically pareve (no dairy ingredients), so that it can be eaten with or after a meat meal and still be kosher. The different fillings can include raisins, walnuts, cinnamon, chocolate, marzipan, or apricot preserves which are rolled up inside.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
• 3/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1/2 cup seedless raspberry preserves
• 1 tablespoon milk

DIRECTIONS

1. In large bowl, with mixer at low speed, beat margarine or butter with cream cheese until blended and smooth. Beat in vanilla extract, salt, 1 cup flour, and 1/4 cup sugar until blended.
2. With spoon, stir in remaining flour. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Wrap each with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours or overnight.
3. To Prepare Filling: In medium bowl, with spoon, stir walnuts, apricots, brown sugar, 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons white sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon until well mixed.
4. Line 2 large baking sheets with foil and grease foil.
5. On lightly floured surface, with floured rolling pin, roll 1 piece of chilled dough into a 9-inch round, keeping remaining dough refrigerated. Spread dough with 2 tablespoons raspberry preserves. Sprinkle with about 1/2 cup apricot filling; gently press filling onto dough. With pastry wheel or sharp knife, cut dough into 12 equal wedges. Starting at curved edge, roll up each wedge, jelly-roll fashion. Place cookies on foil-lined cookie sheet, point-side down, about 1/2 inch apart. Repeat with remaining dough, one-fourth at a time.
6. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C).
7. In cup, mix remaining 2 tablespoons sugar with 1 teaspoon cinnamon. With pastry brush, brush rugelach with milk. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar.
8. Bake rugelach at 325 degrees F (165 degrees C) on 2 oven racks about 30 to 35 minutes until golden, rotating cookie sheets between upper and lower racks halfway through baking time. Immediately remove rugelach to wire racks to cool. Store in tightly covered container.

Labels: Cookies, Holidays, Recipes

Labels: blogiversary, blogs

Labels: blogtopia, meme

Labels: Christmas, Cookies