Been a bit quiet around here, mostly due to the Fourth of July (and several related picnics and cookouts) and then my son's birthday party (and the preparation thereof). Do not fear: weather permitting, we'll be back soon with veggies galore, and a favorite grilling recipe or two.
In the meantime, I present, for your amusement: my latest wacky cake endeavor:
Just a quick link today to Food Candy, the self-proclaimed 'friendster for foodies'. Food Candy rounds up a bunch of incredible food blogs and personalities, so if you're looking for a one-stop fix for all your food porn, you should definitely check it out, and not just because they've featured my post about The Omnivore's Delimma on their front page today.
I'm pleased to say (er, write) that my article for Manzo alla California is a featured post today at www.gather.com. If you've never been there before, you ought to go ahead and check it out, if for no other reason than Lynne Rossetto Kaspar (author of The Splendid Table and The Italian Country Table and one of my favorite cookbook authors ever), who seems to post there fairly regularly.
Some old, some new, some borrowed, and um... well, most of them are brown, actually. Here's a little last minute-chocolate inspiration for you:
Bridgewater Chocolate
Callebaut
Chloe Chocolat
Dagoba
Donnelly Chocolates
Green & Black's
Knipschildt
L.A. Burdick
Lake Champlain
La Maison Du Chocolat
MarieBelle
Payard
Richart
Scharffen Berger
See's Candies
Sweetriot
Valrhona
Vosges
I had an opportunity today to try Odwalla's new PomaGrand juice blend, whilst shopping at Whole Foods. I picked the berry rather than mango flavor (they didn't have the plain pomegranate variety), which has apple juice, and strawberry and blueberry purees, as well as a 'wild berry extract' that's a blend of chokeberry, elderberry, blackberry and black currant juices. It was very berry-y, as you might imagine, but you could still really taste the pomegranate.
I suppose it's got some kind of antioxidants going on (the fruits are high in anthocyanins), but there weren't too many traditional alphabet vitamins on the label, and a lot of sugar (from the fruits; I don't believe there's any added sugar), so who knows how good it actually is for you.
Oh, did it taste good? I suppose it was okay, but certainly not my favorite thing ever. The purees made it a little thick and I thought it was a little too sweet. I tried it because it was new, but I probably wouldn't buy it again.
Here's an interesting article from the New York Times Magazine called 'Generation Pad Thai'. Do chefs' (or foodies') kids eat better than other kids? I'm not sure I buy it. I know a lot of chefs who are far too busy working to eat regular meals with their kids, let alone cook for them.
On the other hand, my kids are much better eaters than a lot of the kids I know (or myself, when I was their age), so maybe there's something to exposing your kids to a wide variety of food at an early age.
