Friday, August 16, 2013

Their Zucchini my recipe.

It's mid August, who is baking?? I was not thinking about firing up the oven for a couple of hours today but...
My neighbor, feeling sorry that we have only one vegetable bearing plant ( in a pot too) handed over some monster zucchinis, like 3 pounders.  So here you go my late summer Zucchini bread recipe.

3.5 C all purpose flour..today I used up my unbleached white then added whole wheat.
1TBSP ground cinnamon
1 TSP salt
1 TSP ground ginger
1 TSP baking soda
.5 TSP nutmeg
.5 TSP ground cloves
.25 baking powder
2 C  Sugar  I used 1 C brown and 1 cup white
3 large eggs
1.5 OZ Grand Marnier.. or brandy.. to keep it plain vanilla, 1 OZ plain vanilla
.5 LB salted butter softened
3 C shreaded Zucchini
1.5 C mixed nuts and dried fruit.

Pre-heat oven to 350
mix together flour, spices, soda and power and put aside
mix in large bowl the eggs, booze, sugars and softened butter til smooth
(if like me and without mixer, having the butter soft makes it blend easier!)
add in the flour mix until absorbed then add in the zucchini and nut mix.
oil or butter the 4x10 loaf pans and pour batter in.
Cook at 350.. mine takes about 55 minutes.
cool 15 minutes


Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Calamari Mood



August, beach, novel, calamari..they all seem to fit so well together.  This is where my head is at while I sit inside watching a summer rain shower.  People always mention the benefits of east coast living like the change of seasons..well within a season you have a range of weather as well, unlike California where a spring day can be very similar to a summer day or a fall day.  Days here in the east are like moods and August rain puts me in the mood to share a plate calamari.

This shot was done for Hilton, specifically for their Finn & Porter restaurants and styled pretty much as they serve it up. There have been some negative press on calamari because lets face it, not everyone can handle the idea of squid, or seafood in general.. but squid seems to be the breaking point for a large group.  I find raw squid a bit hard to down but I will ingest just about anything battered and deep fried.  If you find yourself near a Finn & Porter or staying at a Hilton try it, they do it well, not too oily or over-battered.
This goes down very well with a not-to-sweet Riesling..now I am really in the mood.

Friday, August 2, 2013

Mysterious Ramekin


Empty dishes can tell a story...and a photo of one creates a historical article, but one with many open questions.  What did this ramekin hold? Was it shared or liked..not in the world of Facebook, but in the traditional sense?  What made that color?  Can you feel the intrigue building?
Sadly this was a recovered image from one of my first hard drives that crashed, all the contents were either damaged or lost..this is one of about a thousand that I recovered somewhat in tack but lacking any original ID. So it will remain a mystery until I uncover the shots before and after and see if some legible story takes form.