A Worthy Investment: Part 2

Just like anything of value, time and effort are always part of the equation, but let's be honest, NOT THIS MUCH TIME! Years later I'm finally posting the second half of the Vanilla Extract procedures, and it should really take only 4-6 weeks. I'll blame moving back and forth across the country three times and having a baby as my excuse. I finally noticed that the post was missing when I started building my new facebook page.

This post covers how to package your vanilla extract for gift making. This is obviously not a requirement, but a useful to reward for your patience and hard work. You can bottle your extract with or without the beans, but it's a nice sign that it's home made and special, plus it will continue to steep more flavor.

Here is part one if you missed it. To see the materials I used, see my Amazon Store.

Only one day after steeping! Already quite a bit of color

One month later! Another two weeks would have been ideal, a month is good enough

Pour out the liquid gold, and shake out the beans

To fill the jars without too much mess I used a metal piping tip (not pictured)

I cut the beans in half so they'd fit into the jars

Clearly you don't need a fancy label, but it's a pretty nice gift, so show it some respect.

Ready to go!

I packed quite a number of these into some checked luggage to take home with me, and I just closed the bottles very tightly, enrobed in some bubble wrap, and placed into two layers of zip top bags. 

This is an awesome gift for the upcoming holidays, so don't be like me, and get started with enough time to make it. Mark your calendars now and find supplies here.

Summer Photo Round-Up

My home turf: Davis, California

It doesn't seem like I've done much in the six weeks since moving back to California, but the mountain of food photos I've taken tells a much different story. Living in Philly this past year has taught me to look at the California produce I grew up with in a completely different light, and now I just cannot put the camera down. Rather than long recipes, I've included some simple guidelines that hopefully will inspire you to search for great produce and eat well. Also, big thanks to my mom & uncle for growing most of the spectacular vegetables seen below.

Want something easy? Dip raw veggies into delicious hummus, guacamole, or baba ganoush.

Tons of tomatoes? Cut small ones in half, larger ones in wedges, and placing them on a sheet tray. Dress with olive oil, salt, and herbs, and roast until they look like a juicy sun-dried tomato. These are awesome on pasta and sandwiches.

Don't like using the oven often? Increase efficiency and roast a few beets in foil with olive oil and salt when you are roasting/baking something else. Peel by rubbing with a towel and dress with thyme or basil, and lemon juice.

Fortunate enough to find berries and stone fruit? Toss with a little sugar and lemon juice, and cook it down to create a delicious chunky preserve or jam. Enjoy your delicious spread with any baked good, ice cream, or granola and yogurt.

Bounty of fresh vegetables? 

Coat in herbed olive oil and throw on the grill. If you don't have a grill, just saute and/or broil.

Have some delicious bread on hand? Make an open-face sandwich or bruschetta with

herbed goat cheese and peppers, avocado/tomato/corn, or in this case, salted butter and radishes.

 There are still a few weeks left in summer, so hurry up and take advantage! I know I will.

Food Trek: Baltimore, MD

This particular trip has been on the back burner a long time. I don't mean for a few months or years, I'm talking about the more-than-a-decade-ago kind of long time. I've been to this city before, but this time marks the fulfillment of an offer made during my freshman year of college. That's when my wonderful roommate, AJ from North Baltimore (pronounced "Balmer") County, offered to take me to eat Maryland Blue Crabs someday. It seemed innocent at the time I'll admit, and truthfully I forgot about it for a while, but you better believe that when she mentioned it again this past year, I wasn't going to delay my introduction to these crabs any further. That someday is now, but let's check out a few of the notable bites before the main course.

First stop: Woodberry Kitchen, an all-star dinner with tasty fresh food, spectacular ambiance, and great company. Of particular note was their devotion to hyper-local Chesapeake ingredients, like seafood, and summer fruits and veggies. Plus their inspired teetotalers menu was one of the best I've seen anywhere.

Strawberry buttermilk and 

brown butter ice cream

Cloud 9 - Rosehips, chamomile, peppermint
ice tea, steamed milk, and honey

I love backyard fire pits!
Especially with a tasty reminder that no S'more themed 
cupcake/brownie/cookie/candy will ever top the unadulterated original.

Oregon Ridge Park just north of Baltimore:
A welcome opportunity to get outside and burn some calories 

Meet Rae.
She is the one who convinced me a few years ago 
that owning a dog could be a good thing.

Rita's Water Ice is definitely a Philly thing, but with a strong franchise system on the East Coast I had little doubt that it would taste good in Maryland. Of course, we did eat it twice in one day just to make sure.

Iconic sign in the Baltimore Harbor:
I bought over 100 pounds (!) of this stuff during my time on the East Coast.

The Inner Harbor Marina

Ok, bring on the crabs! 

Well, hello there.

First our host called ahead to prospective eateries to determine the supply and size of the crabs, and whether they were light or heavy. The larger the crab, the fewer you have to pick through to fulfill your appetite. Light or heavy refers to the fact that crabs outgrow their shell, and once they have formed a new one, they may not actually fill it completely up with muscle (and the unfilled space is just water weight). So two crabs can look the same size, feel the same weight alive, but once steamed, the heavy crab will clearly weigh more and contain more meat, and the light crab will now weigh less due to the water loss during the cooking process.

Large-sized heavy crabs. More meat, less work.

Opening a crab to eat is fairly straightforward at the start. You flip it over, there's a little tab or key-like structure (see white underbelly in bottom left of the photo above), and once you pry that up, it's pretty easy to expose the inside of the crab for picking and eating. The second part, dealing with the legs and claws, takes some real finesse that clearly I did not master during this meal. To cleanly expose the delicious meat in each leg, there's an ideal angle and specific tension required, that only repeat visits can calibrate. Alternatively, you can resort to the inelegant crab mallet (below) typically used just for the claws, to essentially brute force chisel your way in.

With great power comes great responsibility.

When it comes to taste, the crab meat is a sweat and tender reward, and it's refreshing to encounter it outside the usual crab preparations, like crab cakes and dip. It doesn't require much accompaniment, though the crabs are traditionally served with Old Bay seasoning, a local Baltimore spice blend created over 70 years ago. The spice mix contains celery salt, paprika, mustard, bay leaf, plus quite a few other ingredients, and it's pretty tasty. In fact, I think I might use it as a new popcorn topping.

Textbook technique demonstrated by our instructors.

Clearly it takes some effort, but as a person who makes a lot of food from scratch, I whole-heartedly embrace this sort of situation. However, even if you are the impatient type, or you don't like to get your hands dirty, the communal nature of this special occasion-type meal and the good eats will definitely make for a great time.

The aftermath.

I equate this meal with the following metaphor: You are a little kid standing at the edge of a giant ball pit thinking, "So, I'm supposed to just jump in and have fun?" You don't know exactly what to do, or how to do it. You aren't really sure what's in there, but it sure looks like a good time. With some encouragement, you take the plunge. Before you know it, you are having such a great time that you can't wipe the smile off your face (or all the Old Bay seasoning), and you are going at it like a veteran. Then all of a sudden, it's over, and you think "I was really hoping that would never end".

*Thanks to AJ, her husband Mark, and her wonderful family Bubbe, Zayde, Rhonda, Matt, Jason, and Rae for our wonderful weekend (we missed you Courtney)!

Check out my other recent food treks:

New York, NY

Cambridge, MA

Food Trek: New York, NY

Anyone who loves food loves New York City. There are so many traditional cuisines and innovative concepts to explore and enjoy, but if you expect good food to just fall into your lap, good luck. The mere presence of tasty food does not secure greatness, in fact, the sheer volume of eating establishments guarantees the exact opposite. In true NYC fashion, the city makes you work for it. Many food lovers respond to this challenge by poring over Zagat reviews, top 100 restaurant articles, or guidebooks, but that can be dizzying and defeating.  What's my strategy to take on the city?  I rely on a trustworthy local with the Yelp mobile app to back me up in a pinch.  If you aren't lucky enough to have an NYC native on your side, use my examples below for guidance until you make some new friends.

Breakfast at Zuckers in TriBeCa
Crunchy seeds, chewy bagel, creamy cheese, and velvety salmon.

The Upper West Side's Zabar's is a must-see for any cook or food lover.  The first floor is packed with amazing deli and prepared food options, and the second floor offers a kitchen and housewares selection that dreams are made of.

A magnificent line-up of focused Zabar's lox slicers

Skip the hordes of tourists in Little Italy and head to Veneiro's Pasticceria in the East Village. 
I love a place that sells pastries by the pound.  There's no shame here, just some serious eating.

Some people accuse the labyrinthine Eataly of being a tourist trap, but I'll be honest, I don't mind getting trapped one bit.  The imported selection of Italian pantry staples and fresh food is complex to say the least, but as long as you stay focused and find one or two things to enjoy, you'll have fun in this megastore.  Just don't get kid-in-a-candy-store crazy and lose all your lunch money.  Find it just across the street from the iconic Flatiron Building.

If you can't figure out what to get at Eataly, check out the Nutella area. Yes, there is a whole room devoted to it.  It's a little quieter than the rest of the store and the cookies are spectacular.

Basque small plates + Dimsum service = Huertas in the East Village.
Delicious monkfish with golden raisins and green olives.

 If the weather is good, the Brooklyn Flea Market at Fort Greene is an awesome Saturday outing.   The vendor stalls are a mix of new artisans and vintage collections that would fulfill any hipster fantasy.  Searching for the proverbial or literal diamond in the rough is leisurely and fun, when fueled by good eats and sips (see below). 

Lonestar Empire: Great brisket, great pickles, great sauce (not pictured).
We went back for seconds...

The People's Pops folks having too much fun with the shaved ice

With quite a few dessert options to choose from at the flea market,
I was not disappointed with Blue Marble ice cream

 BKLYN Larder was a great Yelp detour where we found the ingredients to a fantastic picnic-style dinner.  A fancy, high quality meal with no tip or pretension necessary. This casual dinner was so good we ate it for breakfast the next day, minus the wine of course. 

Though some of our stops were carefully mapped, we were grateful for our serendipitous hunger in Central Park.  While on our way to the Belvedere Castle, we found the Shakespeare in the Park Delacorte theatre concession stand and it's awesomely innovative hotdog menu.

Picnic Dog:
Tangy mustard, BBQ potato chips, scallions

Buffalo Dog:
Blue cheese, crispy pickled carrots and celery 

Even with abundant recommendations and perfect guides, so much of a food journey is about circumstance. You can attempt to divine and visit all the trendy hotspots, but trying to conquer this city brute force is to ignore what makes it special.  NYC is an ever-changing landscape of variety, quantity, and quality. Avoid the food stress by focusing your search on a specific neighborhood, a cuisine, or a dish (e.g., East Village, Dominican, or ice cream).  Alternatively, pick a start and end point (e.g., your hotel and a museum), and Yelp your way between the two places with some hungry friends.  Finally, trust your gut.  If you see or smell something delicious that's not on the itinerary (e.g., potato chips on a hot dog) go for it!  Sure you might miss out on the next Cronut-craze equivalent, but every time you visit NYC, it will be another unique opportunity of a lifetime to eat well.  

Thanks to Jordan and Monica for a spectacular time in NYC!