Rookie Cookery

Halloween Hat Swap

Guess what I'll be wearing while handing out Halloween treats tonight?  The FABULOUS hat pictured above, that's what! 

Lately I have been cruising  blogs by people who love to make things, and happened upon a "Halloween Hat Swap" hosted by Speckled Egg.  Interested people were invited to sign up, and be paired by the swap host with another person with whom we would swap our own hand-made Halloween hats.  I LOVE  Halloween, and I had to get in on the fun. My partner was Erin of Tresors Marche, who sent me her gorgeous creation along with a ton of treats: a  reproduction vintage Halloween postcard,  a hand made card with my name spelled out in buttons, candy treats, and a terrific retro dancing witch!  Check out this booty I got from Erin!

I can't tell you how much fun it was to open that box. The hat (and everything else) has been on display  in my dining area all month.  Thank you again, Erin!

Meanwhile I also had to figure out how to make a hat.  It wasn't quite as easy as you might think.

First I tried fashioning a cone shaped template from newspaper.

That didn't work out too well, so I scouted the internet for directions on how to make a cone shaped hat that would fit an adult.

I finally found workable directions from--who else?--Martha Stewart! Here's what you do: Get a large piece of poster paper, a pencil and a length of string that is 15 to 18 inches long (or the desired height of the finished hat).  Tie one end of the pencil to the string.   This is going to be used as a compass.

Hold the other end of the string to the straight edge of the paper, (near the corner), and  holding the string straight, draw a curved line that is at least as long as the finished circumference of the head the hat is designed to fit, plus another inch or so for overlap.   An easy way to do this is to first take a string and measure  around your head,  and use that length of string (plus a little overlap)  to measure the length of the curved edge you will draw with the pencil and string.

Now I see why there aren't many good directions for making hats on the internet....

So anyway now you are ready to draw your hat template:

See how easy that was?  Of course you can use this paper as the hat and decorate it to your hearts content, using paper, fabric, and lovely things like flowers and buttons, feathers  and crystal pendulums like Erin did  on the hat she made for me. 

Here's what I did:  I had some  black and white toile fabric I liked, so I sprayed the back of the fabric with glue and fixed it to my poster paper cone.   Then I cut away the excess fabric to fit the paper. 

And now we come to the hardest part (for me), which was how on earth to get the cone to stay in a cone shape. Should I glue it? Sew it? Staple it?  Glue by itself didn't work, as I discovered with dismay.  Perhaps the fabric made the cone too stiff. What I finally ended up doing was exposing a tiny strip of edge, masking off the hat with newspaper to protect it from glue, and spraying on a little of the adhesive along that overlap edge. This was awkward and only half worked. So then I got medieval on it and used a stapler at the edge of the hat and again as far up the interior of the cone as I could reach with the stapler. 

It worked, partly because the decorative fabric made it hard to see the staples. At this point I realized that if I was going to get this hat made, the stapler was going to be my friend.

The rest of it was pretty easy.  I deserve extra stars for thinking ahead to attach the ribbons (which would be used to tie under one's chin  while wearing the hat.) BEFORE putting on the edge trim.  I  put the hat on, and drew a dot with a marker pen on the inside of the hat in the approximate location of my ears on either side of my head. This would be where I would staple the ribbon ties.  Then I stapled on the ties  as securely as I could. 

I then stapled on a wide band of a spider theme ribbon to trim the edge of the hat. Again, the patterns on the ribbon and fabric  did a fairly good job of hiding the staples. Whew!

The final touch was  to attach the  ribbons to the top of the cone. These were little decorated hair bands I had purchased from a craft store.  I had considered fixing these inside the cone during its construction, but decided I wanted Erin to be able to remove and  wear them separately, so I simply slid them over the end of the cone. 

Done!

Here's a close up of the ribbon ties and edge (not really a brim):

It fit!

It fit my son Evan too!

So I figured it would fit Erin too. :)

This was my first internet swap and it was a total blast.  To witness an incredible display of fun and creativity, I hope you take a moment to check out all the other hats  made by participants of the swap. 

Happy Halloween!

PS: Boo.

   

How To Be A Better Foodie

How's your foodie cred?  Can you hold your own in a conversation where the culture of food is the passionate subject?  If you could use some help, or better yet if you are fascinated by food ephemera and want to add to your store of lore and trivia,  get your hands on a copy of the small but packed little volume titled How To Be A Better Foodie; A Bulging Little Book For The Truly Epicurious by Sudi Pigott. 

Even if you don't identify with the term "foodie",  the book lives up to its title by providing the reader with page after page of interesting food facts that only a lover of food would appreciate.  Like a cross between a dictionary and a personal encyclopedia, the information contained is lovingly culled more from the author's own food explorations,  than an attempt to be as comprehensive as the giant and classic Larousse Gastronomique.  As I peruse the pages, I feel I am receiving the distilled wisdom and advice from a knowledgeable foodie friend about "where the really good stuff is". 

The book does have a chatty "be in the know", magazine-style vibe, with chapters on cooking must-haves, wish lists for the kitchen, and a consistent focus on the avant-garde and trendy, such as  "Trophy extreme seasonal delicacies". But again, rather than offend me with a snootier-than-thou attitude, the author goes on to provide the goods in terms of cutting edge information that was truly new to me.  She seduced me with her ability to satisfy my inner food trivia geek, and make me turn the pages for more.

Some of the information is admittedly obscure. Here you can find out where they eat lamprey as a delicacy, (Finland), what other foodies eat in the far-flung corners of the globe, and a detailed list of offal that, by another name, is a gourmet treat. But there are handy lists too, such as movies that every foodie ought to see, (naming several titles that were beyond the obvious), how to select high quality foods, and what constitutes good table manners in a variety of settings. The author answers questions I would never have thought to ask. Bottom line, it's a fun read.

This is not a coffee table book plastered with luscious food photography. In fact, there are no pictures other than minimal illustrations,  and pages punctuated with lively quotes.  The book is cleverly designed in a two-tone chocolate brown, pink and white color scheme that suggests a box of chocolates.  The design is fitting--this is mind-candy at it's best:  serving up delicious little morsels to be nibbled at over time, the reader finding it hard to stop at just one page. 

With the holiday gift giving season approaching, this little tome could easily go on your  "good to give or get" list. 

First Pie Of The Season

How do you like my fake lattice crust on that pie? Or should I say "faux" lattice style decoration. The lattice is just leftover crust trimmed into strips and laid across the top, with a little milk wash to help the browning. That was a store-bought crust and since I recall making my own pie dough recently I guess that isn't my first pie this season after all. Oh well, I'll just say that was an end-of-the-summer pie!

There's something about the cooler weather that makes me want to bake. This pie kicks off the autumn-winter season: an apple pie with a generous sprinkling of dried and lightly sweetened cranberries. I really enjoyed the way the tart cranberries offset the sweetness of the apples. As usual, no sugar (except the little bit on the cranberries) was required to suit my family's taste.

Butterflied Chicken Salad recipe

Here's a way to prepare a hearty broiled chicken salad that requires minimal fuss and delivers a big wow at the table. This recipe is based upon one I found hidden in the section on broiling in Alton Brown's book I'm Just Here For The Food. It seems that Alton found himself at the home of a coworker and was called upon to improvise a meal. He searched through the pantry and fridge and came up with this winner (or something close to it.)

INGREDIENTS
one whole organic chicken (rinsed and organs removed)
a loaf of crusty French bread (note: This is a great way to use old bread!)
salad greens
a can of olives, your choice (I like kalamata)
a pint of cherry tomatoes
2 or 3 green onions
a little grated soft white cheese such as Fontina
salt and pepper
a little vinegar (optional)

Here's what you do:

Butterfly the chicken. Sounds hard, but it isn't: Grab a cleaver or sharp wide blade knife and simply slice through the back of the chicken on either side of the spine. Remove the spine (and save for stock if desired.) Flip over the chicken and press it flat, breast side up. Place the chicken on your broiler pan and coat lightly with olive oil.

A NOTE ABOUT COOKING WITH YOUR BROILER: You may not be familiar with your broiler pan. That's a shame, because it is enormously useful and essentially allows you to grill indoors, albeit upside down, because the source of heat is coming from above your food rather than below. DO broil in a clean oven, because it is a high heat method of cooking and could produce lots of smoke if there is food debris in the oven. Use your fan and open a window if you notice any smoke. I have been told that in order to keep the broiler element operating continually, (that is, not cycling off and on to maintain a certain temperature), you should broil with the oven door slightly ajar. This also allows you to keep a close eye on the food so that it does not burn.

You will want the chicken to be close, but not too close, to the broiler element. Let it broil for about 15 minutes, during which time the chicken will brown nicely.

While the chicken is broiling:

Cut or tear the bread into bite size pieces. (I like the rustic torn style). Set aside in a bowl.
Then slice the olives, green onions and tomatoes and set them aside in another bowl.
Shred the cheese and set aside.
Cut up the salad greens (lettuce) and set aside.

When the chicken is broiled on the breast side, use tongs and carefully flip the bird over. Broil the other side for another ten or fifteen minutes.

Remove chicken from oven and use a thermometer to verify the internal temperature of 170 degrees in the thickest part of the meat. Keeping the chicken on the grill pan, remove the grill from the drip pan and set aside over a cookie sheet or somewhere else to catch the drippings. Cover with foil and set aside to cool.

Now take the pan full of chicken drippings, and (using a wide spoon) remove and discard all but a few tablespoons of chicken fat. Then place the torn bread pieces into the pan and toss them to coat lightly with the fat. Spread them out and place under the broiler. Watch them like a hawk until they are nicely toasted. Remove from oven and dump them into a large wide serving bowl or platter.

Sprinkle the grated cheese on to the toasted bread so it melts a little with the residual heat.

Place the vegetables under the broiler (tomatoes, olives, onions), salt and pepper to taste, and allow them to broil until the tomatoes take on a little color.

While your vegetables broil, (but keeping one eye on the broiler!) cut the chicken into pieces for serving. When finished, remove the veggies from the broiler.

Now you are ready to assemble the final dish.

In the large serving bowl or platter, toss together the salad greens, broiled vegetables, and bread cubes. Lightly sprinkle with vinegar if desired. Correct the seasoning if needed.

Now take your chicken pieces and place them over the salad. Serve with a chilled white wine and enjoy.

I love this rustic style of cooking. Get to know your broiler. It is your friend.

Zevia taste test

Some time ago I promised a taste test of Zevia, a sugar free soda made with Stevia, an herb that is hundreds of times sweeter than sugar and can be used as a sweetener that adds no calories.  The taste test was recorded live a few months ago, and is presented here as my very first podcast.  Although the taste test is a little long, please be advised that we tasted three different flavors of Zevia, and our reactions to the third was quite different from the first two. Then things went a little haywire. I hope you enjoy it and leave a comment.

(Editor's Note: Future posts on Zevia are here and here.)