My honorary aunt and dear friend recently gave me a copy of Enlightened Chocolate by Camilla V. Saulsbury. It’s a collection of ‘healthy’(-ish) chocolate recipes. My concept of healthy-ish cooking is to bake infrequently and give away most of my cookies, not fret over ingredients, but some of the recipes here actually look pretty tasty.

These scones are just wonderful. Dave has slowly introduced me to enjoying baked goods made with whole wheat flour over the past few years – he started by sneaking a little bit into his breads, and then increasing the percentage slowly over time. It’s pretty amazing, but now I love that touch of whole wheat flour flavor mixed with the ginger in this recipe. Next time I might even go so far as to make it with half whole wheat flour, half cake flour! (”I’ve really learned how to manipulate your brain,” says he.)

I added extra chocolate and extra ginger, messed with the flour percentages, and used whole milk instead of fat-free. I also like cutting smaller scones, because they’re so much easier to share. And oh, they’re absolutely perfect with a big mug of genma chai for breakfast in the morning.

Archives
2008: Quick-Pickled Cucumbers with Chili Bean Sauce
2007: Chicken and Rice, Curry Banana, Roots and Rhizomes Stew
2006: Aztec Marshmallows


Double Ginger Chocolate Chunk Scones
(adapted from Enlightened Chocolate by Camilla V. Saulsbury)
2/3 C whole wheat flour
1/3 C all-purpose flour
1 C cake flour
1/4 C packed dark brown sugar
2 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp butter, cut into chunks
1/2 C plus 2 tsp milk (I used whole milk, but fat-free would be fine)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg white
3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into chunks
4 tbsp chopped crystallized ginger (or Ginger People ginger chips – yum!) (Dave prefers trading half of the ginger for an equal quantity of chopped dried strawberries)
2 tsp raw/turbinado sugar

1. Preheat your oven to 450 F.

2. In a food processor, blend together the flours, brown sugar, ground ginger, baking powder, salt, and butter until the mix resembles coarse meal.

3. In a separate bowl, stir together the 1/2 C milk, egg white, and vanilla.

4. Blend the milk mixture into the flour mixture just until it starts to come together.

5. Pour the fairly liquidy dough out onto a lightly floured surface, and separate into two parts. Flatten a bit by hand.

6. Press half the chocolate chunks and half the crystallized ginger into the top of each mound of dough.

7. Knead each mound of dough about 4 times, sprinkling a bit more flour on it as needed. Don’t be afraid of it – it will stay gooey, and the chocolate and ginger will try to escape. Just squish it together as best you can, don’t overwork it in an attempt to solidify it, and don’t panic. It’ll all work out just fine. Honest.

8. Press each mound of dough into a 4″ diameter circle on a parchment lined baking sheet.

9. Cut each mound into 8 wedges, but don’t separate or worry about really cutting the lines all the way through.

10. Brush with the extra milk and sprinkle on the turbinado sugar.

11. Bake for 16-18 minutes or until golden, rotating from top to bottom and front to back halfway through.

Going through older post drafts, I’m always a bit startled when I come across a photo that I actually really like! It always seems to me that surely I must have posted all the good photos already, and only left the dregs as drafts. But apparently not.

Salad may not seem that exciting, but for me it’s revolutionary. In fact, so are blood oranges – I can’t stand regular oranges, but blood oranges taste just different enough. The redder they are, the better they taste. I can’t tell if that’s a real difference, or if I just like that the reddest ones look less like oranges. We made this during the height of Dave’s obsession with stovetop approximated sous vide cooking, and my obsession with finding salads I actually enjoy eating.

I think what won me over was the realization that salads could include fruit and spices and artistry, and not just a bunch of leaves on a plate. Who knew?

Enjoy!

Archives
2008: Cocoa Nib Flans with Raw Sugar Sauce
2007: Stewed Garlicky Black Bean Spare Ribs

Artichoke and Blood Orange Salad
2 small heads frisee, removed from base and cleaned
1/4 C coarsely chopped flat leaf parsley
for the pickled artichokes
8 artichoke hearts, cut into eighths (held in acidulated water)
150 gm white wine vinegar
1.5 gm gelatin (optional — don’t bother if you have a chamber vac)
1 quarter preserved lemon, rind only, coarsely chopped.
4 cardamom pods, crushed
2 cloves garlic, crushed
for the blood oranges
4 blood oranges
1 tsp ground cardamom
for the vinaigrette
2 tbsp mustard seed oil
1 tsp red wine vinegar
fleur du sel
black pepper

First, make the pickled artichoke hearts.

This is actually a pretty spectacular method for doing sous vide cooking with liquidy contents inside the vacuum sealed bag without having a hugely expensive chamber vacuum sealer. Ordinarily, a FoodSaver or other normal, affordable home vacuum sealer can’t seal up anything that isn’t pretty dry, because the liquid gums up the works (as it were).

To solve this problem, we hit upon the idea of gelling the liquid with gelatin, since gelatin is thermoreversible and melts back into liquid when heated. This turns the liquid into a solid during the vacuum-sealing stage, and back into a liquid during the cooking stage. A perfect solution to all of life’s problems!

1. Bring the vinegar and gelatin to a boil, then refrigerate it until it is set.

2. Make a sachet with the cardamom, garlic, and lemon.

3. Add gelled vinegar, spice sachet, and artichoke hearts to a vacuum bag and seal.

4. Cook at 185 F for 40-75 minutes, until somewhat tender.

Next, prepare the blood orange.

1. Supreme the blood oranges by cutting off the peel to create a whole skinless fruit, then cutting segments of fruit out from between the layers of membrane. There are some great visual instructions on how to supreme citrus here.

2. Toss the blood orange segments with the cardamom.

Finally, construct the salad.

1. Whick together the vinaigrette, and toss with the parsley and frisee.

2. Top with blood orange segments (cold), artichokes (warm), salt, and freshly ground pepper to taste.

3. Serve immediately.

These truffles were inspired by Goat Lady Dairy, which I encountered at the farmers market in Greensboro, North Carolina last winter. Her chevre truffles were a blended ganache, about 60% chocolate to 40% chevre, with a bit of vanilla and salt as well – and they were fantastic! Of course, I had to come back home to NYC eventually, so I had to figure out how to make my own replacement instead of just relying on Goat Lady Dairy for my fix.

The Greensboro farmers market was just amazing. It turns out that Goat Lady Dairy does an occasional restaurant sort of like ours (sigh), excepts theirs takes place in their barn. I also met Ross Flynn of Cane Creek Farm, who chatted with me about tasty cow hearts, Ossabaw pigs (apparently more like historical Iberico than the Iberico available today!), and other meaty topics along those lines.

After getting home and going through some experimentation, I came to the conclusion that I liked simple salted chocolate-dipped chevre even better than blended chevre truffles. They look nicer to me, and I love the texture contrast as you bite through the chocolate shell and and the cold, creamy chevre bursts out into your mouth.

I’m a bit fussy, and I only like very mild cheeses. I always buy my chevre at the Union Square or Grand Army Plaza greenmarkets from Lynnhaven Farm, which has the mildest, sweetest, creamiest chevre around. It has just the right level of tanginess for my taste, and it works perfectly in these truffles.

I’ve also included cheat to get you out of having to temper the chocolate. It turns out that if you melt a bit of neutral oil in with your chocolate, it will help stabilize the crystal structure and keep your chocolate from blooming or otherwise appearing to be out of temper. It’s a great trick for dipping things in chocolate when you just don’t have the time or inclination to go through the whole process of actually tempering the chocolate properly. Seems too easy to work, but it does.

Archives
2008: Home-Cured Salmon with Black Pepper and Coriander
2007: Forbidden Rice with Persimmon and Coconut
2006: Truffled Gruyere Risotto


Chevre Truffles
4 oz chevre
4 oz bittersweet chocolate
2 tsp safflower (or other neutral) oil
Maldon (or other crunchy) sea salt

Roll the chevre into small spheres and spread them out on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Put them in the freezer and allow them to freeze.

The oil lets you cheat on tempering the chocolate. It helps stabilize the crystal structure, and keeps the chocolate from blooming even when it hasn’t been tempered.

Gently melt the chocolate with the oil, stirring it until all lumps are gone. Let it cool a bit.

Dip the chevre spheres into the chocolate and put them back onto the parchment paper to set. Sprinkle a bit of crunchy salt on top of each one after it is dipped – act fast, though, because the chocolate will set very quickly!

Store in the fridge. Serve cold but not frozen.

This recipe was inspired by Wildman Steve Brill, who has a foraged, vegan version in his Wild Vegetarian Cookbook. The Wildman uses cashews for their creamy texture and actual sassafras roots foraged from city parks for their vivid flavor, but our civilized ovo-lacto interpretation can be made with ingredients actually purchased in stores.

It’s clementine season again, and our apartment is never without a big wooden bowl full of clementines in the middle of the dining room table. I get my sassafras extract at New York Cake Supplies, though you can easily order it online or find it in other gourmet food stores.

This ice cream tastes like melted sunlight. (Sunlight qua frozen hot chocolate, perhaps?) It has all those wonderful bright citrus notes – though maybe I’m a bit overexcited, given what a clementine addict I become every winter. And sassafras is one of the key ingredients in root beer, and it tastes like root beer without all the distractions getting in the way.

In other news, we got some press by winning the savory category of the First Annual Brooklyn Pie Bake-Off with our muffin-sized individual saffron duck pot pies. Thank you to everyone who came out to eat and compete!

There was a big crowd with about 40 pies on the table, and we had a great time tasting as many as we could and hanging out with other food bloggers and pie enthusiasts. With such a great start, I’m awfully tempted to compete in more cook-offs from now on!

Archives
2008: Pork & Sundried Tomato Cappelletti with Pomegranate Walnut Sauce
2007: Cubed Radish Kimchi
2006: Kabocha Beef Tagine with Chickpeas and Preserved Lemon


Clementine Sassafras Ice Cream
2 C heavy cream
1 C wholemilk
Juice of 3 clementines
Zest of 6 clementines (just eat the rest!)
6 large egg yolks
3/4 C granulated sugar
1/8 tsp sassafras extract
1/4 c candied clementine rind (optional)
A bit of citric acid to taste (optional)

In a medium saucepan, stir the cream, juice, and zest together with half of the sugar, reserving the other 3/8 C sugar for later.

In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks together with the other 3/8 C sugar until thoroughly combined.

Bring the cream mixture to a simmer, then remove it from the heat and slowly pour it into egg yolks, whisking constantly.

Pour the mix back into the saucepan and bring to 180 degrees F, stirring constantly. When it hits the right temperature, remove it from the heat and strain into medium bowl set in a larger bowl of ice water.

Stir until it cools to 120 degrees F.

Stir in the sassafras extract. Add the candied clementine and citric acid to taste (optional).

Chill and freeze churn according to your cream maker’s instructions.

I have good news and bad news.

The bad news is that my occasional restaurant, Jack, is shutting down. Due to increasing incompatibility with the venue, we can no longer continue to hold our monthly restaurant nights. It lasted almost two years, and has been an amazing experience. Next, we try to write a book proposal, I suppose. (Though if Palo Santo wanted to take us on as dessert consultants, we wouldn’t complain! We should be so lucky.)

We’re still in mourning over the loss of the restaurant, in a sense. It was a huge part of our lives. But I don’t doubt that the next wacky project is always just around the corner. Compiling long to-do lists of project ideas is my forte.

The good news is that in the meantime, we’re taking our suddenly free weekend as an opportunity to finally join the local cook-off scene. (For those of you elsewhere in the world, here’s the thing: NYC has a burgeoning cook-off scene that has really gotten huge over the past couple of years. Crazy, huh?)

This Sunday we’re going to compete at the 1st Annual Brooklyn Pie Bake-Off Benefit. Come on out, eat delicious pie, and vote for us!

Archives
2008: Chile Lime Sweet Potatoes with Spinach Clove Yogurt
2007: Cranberry Quince Sorbet
2006: Cocoa Nib Caramel & Almond Butter Nougat Bars

So, here’s the story: that photo up there is of me and Dave with our goddaughter on our wedding day.

(I might have a bit more time for taking food photos and writing now that the wedding planning is over!)

(Also, before I forget to give this most important credit: the photos in this post are all from proofs by Annaliese Moyer unless otherwise indicated.)

Dave and I got married on August 29th, and promptly left for our honeymoon in Southeast Asia. Even catching up on things since getting back has been an adventure. We petted tigers, got sick, ate many tasty street foods, hiked around, visited five countries, and had an incredible trip. Now that I’m back, I’m working on some interesting cases for clients whom I am proud to represent, and really just luxuriating in having the extra energy to pour into all of my work and projects.

I’d like to take a moment to tell you a bit more about the wedding.

Our goddaughter was our bubble girl, you see.

We’d originally planned to hold the ceremony on the beach between the bridges, but when the rain started coming down harder, we gave up and sought shelter [under the chuppah] under the arch of the Manhattan Bridge in Dumbo, Brooklyn, NY (photo by our friend Laura, I believe).

Pausing for the noisy trains to pass was one of the many highlights of this decision. I think I laughed more during our ceremony than I ever have at anyone else’s wedding, which is a huge win in my book!

We asked our dear friend Cat Valente to officiate for us, along with the judge for whom I used to work as a court attorney, with help from a linguistics professor / cantor friend to sing the sheva brachot. Cat explained what the various symbols of the ceremony meant to us, and the judge discussed our commitment to marriage equality at our request and administered our vows.

Dave held my bouquet while I said my vows to him.

Scott Lefton made us the most amazing wedding rings (photo below taken by him).

Our rings each come with a custom-designed puzzle, that enables the ring to be worn as a bracelet or a pendant. Each puzzle has a labyrinth hidden within, which must be solved by rotating the outer body of the puzzle and moving the two arms which hold the ring in place. As Scott put it during our wedding ceremony, “this echoes how Danielle and Dave will work together to navigate the mazes of their joined lives, sometimes moving together and sometimes separately, but always with a common goal in mind.” When the puzzle is solved, the arms move inwards and the ring can be removed and worn traditionally instead.

Scott printed the solution to the puzzle on flash paper and lit it on fire during the ceremony, of course. Wouldn’t want to make things too easy on us.

He handed a second copy of the solution in a sealed envelope to my brother, who put it in a safe deposit box somewhere out on Long Island. When we got home from the honeymoon, we found the key and coordinates to the solution in a frame on the wall in our apartment.

We were rained out, but we didn’t let that stop us.

We had a reception filled with games, honey, and stories.

Our wedding favors were small jars filled with Zambian honey, with labels I made from the invitation art drawn by Lee Moyer.

My favorite is still the wall we set up with luggage tags. People wrote true and false stories about us on luggage tags and tacked them to the wall, then voted on stories others had written with little red and green stickers.

We brought our favorite cleaver from home to cut the wedding cake.

(This at least is bloggishly appropriate. I’ve used that cleaver to chop pumpkins for kaddo bourani and bones stewed garlicky black bean spare ribs. It is well loved and well utilized.)

Brooklyn’s Borough President, Marty Markowitz, issued a Proclamation for us. Dave’s mother baked the most delicious cookies for all of our guests. My brother found the Baby Soda Jazz Band for us just a few days before the event.

I can’t possibly recount all the details here. I’ll skip ahead to more appropriate posts soon, with photos of all the amazing foods we discovered on our honeymoon. But this is what’s been taking up so much of my time, and you deserve a glimpse of it.

Our wedding was ultimately a huge collaborative effort, and afterwards, a lot of people came up to us to say that they’d never had this much fun being part of a wedding before. We really stepped back and let people run wild with their creativity for us, loving what they had to give instead of telling them precisely what to do to build a very specific image for us. I absolutely treasure the brilliant, amazing people we have in our lives, whose wildest dreams created such a wonderment for us.

And now that all’s done and we’re home again, my blushing bride handsome husband partner (nothing else sounds quite right, still) and I are catching up on our lives (and our cooking) at last!

We’ve served this sauce at the restaurant twice now, and I’m not tired of it yet, which is an absolute miracle for me. It was another one of Dave’s brilliant sauces, where he came up with the main idea and all I had to do was taste and give him a few suggestions for rounding out the flavor in the end.

When we’re cooking in our tiny Lyceum kitchen, we can’t really hear what’s going on in the big room outside. Our waiters come back and tell us what people say and how they look, and we eagerly wait to see which plates come back with fingerswipe marks in lieu of leftover sauce.

When this mole was served the first time, though, a moment later someone out in the dining room exclaimed with delight so loudly that I could hear it back in the kitchen: “Oh my god, this sauce! There’s so much going on!”

Back to work, anyways. We are at t minus 3 weeks for the wedding, and there’s still so much left to do! There are fans to be made, Zambian honey to be labeled, and the flower girl still needs new shoes.

Right after the wedding, we’re leaving to wander around Southeast Asia for 3 weeks. We have a few days in Tokyo on the way to Bangkok, and then eventually we fly home from Hanoi. Haven’t figured out the middle yet. I definitely want to stop by Chiang Mai and Siem Reap (and Angkor Wat, of course), possibly somewhere in Malaysia, and almost certainly not Singapore or Laos. Indonesia is tempting, but 3 weeks just isn’t enough time. Melaka is iffy enough as is.

Any advice? Restaurants we need to check out, people we need to meet, places we should avoid?

Archives
2008: Duck Confit and Fig Crostini
2007: Fig, Sweet Potato, and Wild Rice Stuffing
2006: Blueberry Port Chutney Shortbread Bars

This makes a ton of sauce. For 18, Dave thinks, but we always have plenty left over after that. It freezes well.

Pecan Mole
4 tbsp safflower/peanut/canola oil
1/4 C ipek pul biber (a Turkish ground hot chili – not too hot, with a complex fruity flavor)
1/2 tsp pulla (another chili – grind it before measuring)
1.5 tsp new mexican chili
2 tsp kalonji/nigella
200 gm shallot (about 5), sliced
1 plantain, sliced
4 cloves garlic
100 gm pecans
50 gm shelled raw sunflower seeds
1/4 tsp ground clove
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp packed tiny dried shrimp (easily found in Chinatown)
1/2 C raisins
2 C water
2 C intense chicken stock
Salt to taste

Heat the oil in a pan. Add the chilis and kalonji. Cook for about 30 seconds, then add the shallots and plantain.

After the shallots have softened, add the garlic, pecans, and sunflower seeds.

Cook until the garlic is translucent and the pecans and sunflower seeds are lightly toasted.

Stir in the remaining ingredients and cook over high heat, stirring occasionally, until reduced to about 3 cups.

Blend until smooth.

Adjust seasoning to taste.

We most recently served this with warm zucchini terrines, lamb chops that had been cooked sous vide and then seared, garlic scapes, and cocoa nibs.

Zucchini Terrines
1/2 recipe pecan mole
8 red potatoes
4 small or 2 large zucchini
12 shallots
cocoa nibs
Salt to taste
Oil

Add a bit of extra salt to the mole sauce, as it has to flavor the potatoes.

Briefly saute the shallots until translucent.

Thinly slice the potatoes and zucchini. Toss the zucchini with oil.

In oiled ring molds or foil-lined muffin tins, layer potato slices with mole. Top and edge with zucchini. Top with shallots. Press to shrink.

Bake at 400 F for 40 minutes, then reduce heat to 350, cover with foil, and bake for 20 more minutes.

Sprinkle with cocoa nibs.

In anticipation of passing through Thailand as part of our honeymoon, I’ve been pulling out some of my favorite Thai cookbooks (stolen from my mother with her consent when I first moved out, as she has great taste) and playing around with them lately. It doesn’t really make sense, since I know I’ll spend at least the first month after returning from the trip trying to recreate a lot of the flavors and textures we’ll encounter there, but I’m having fun.

This dish is a really fantastic Thai dish that I’ve never seen in restaurants around here. And to be honest, it’s actually just Rasa Malaysia’s version, but with the different forms of tamarind and chili powder that I tend to have on hand, and taking out the peanuts, which I hate. I read through about half a dozen different recipes, but this looked the best, and it was a smashing hit when I made it.

The sauce is sweet and sour and luscious and plate-lickingly good. I keep thinking of other things I can douse in it!

Archives
2008: Sour Cherry Coffee Cake
2007: Apple Caramel Ice Cream
2006: Blueberry Oatmeal Crisp with Lime Ice Cream

Son-in-Law Eggs
4 eggs
2 big shallots (finely chopped)
Oil for deep frying
Cilantro (coarsely chopped) to garnish
for the sauce
1/2 tbsp fish sauce
2 tbsp dark palm sugar
1 tbsp tamarind concentrate
A splash of water
1 clove garlic (minced)
1 tsp coarse Korean chili flakes

Hard-boil the eggs, and cool in a cold water bath. Shell them and slice them neatly in half the long way.

Fry the shredded shallots until crispy and golden brown, then remove them and place them on a paper towel covered plate to drain. They crisp up more as they drain.

Deep fry the eggs until they turn a really vibrant golden brown. It’s sort of astounding how well they fry! Then remove them with a slotted spoon and place on a paper towel covered plate to drain.

Pour out the oil, leaving only about a tablespoon behind still in the pan. Add the garlic and saute until light brown. Stir in the chili flakes, then the tamarind concentrate, water, palm sugar, and fish sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil, and it’s basically done.

Arrange the eggs on rice, and pour the sauce on top of the eggs. Top with fried shallots and fresh cilantro. Serve immediately.

I’ve been meaning to post this for months! Since a few of you requested it, I may as well start with the backlog here. This was a really fun dish to throw together. The saffron turmeric cake was an adaptation of a chocolate cake recipe, where Dave started by replacing the cocoa powder with turmeric and went on from there. It is intensely flavorful and moist and one of the most perfect cakes we’ve ever developed.

You can see from the photo how vividly red the inside of the cake is. It turns out that turmeric, a bright yellow root most commonly sold as a powder here in the U.S., turns red when it reacts with alkaline substances. In fact, the red dot traditionally worn by many Indian women in the center of the forehead is made by mixing powdered turmeric with lime (not the fruit!).

I can’t remember why we decided to pair it with the thyme brittle and the meyer lemon sorbet (I’m sure it made sense at the time, and it worked really well), but I definitely recall that we added thyme because we had read that meyer lemon contains one of the same flavor compounds as thyme.

Our few sets of our muffin pans are still stained red from making rounds of these cakes, but it was entirely worth it.

Now, what you’ve all been waiting for: the winners of my CIA book giveaway! I used a random number generator to pick winners from the comments. The winners are Sandy, Kathryn, Vicki, Alison, Esme, and Red! Winners, please email me your addresses and I’ll have a book sent out to each of you pronto. Thanks to everyone for playing along!

Archives
2008: Chocolate-Whiskey Pudding Cake
2007: Rum-Drenched Cocoa-Nana Bread
2006: Saffron Dill Cappelletti Stuffed With Leeks

Saffron Turmeric Cake
1 stick (1/2 C) unsalted butter, in 1 inch cubes
1/2 C warm water
2 tbsp turmeric
1 small pinch saffron
1 C sugar
1.7 oz all-purpose flour
0.7 oz whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 tsp sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

Prepare muffin tins with butter and flour, and set aside.

In a large saucepan, steep the saffron in the water. Whisk the flours, salt, and baking soda together, and set aside.

Add the butter and turmeric into the saffron water, then turn on the heat and simmer until the butter melts. Remove from heat.

Whisk in the sugar, but don’t panic if it doesn’t dissolve. Whisk in the flour mixture. Whisk in the egg and then the sour cream, until the color is even.

Fill the prepared muffin tins about 2/3 full.

Bake for 20 minutes. Don’t worry about it setting fully – it will finish setting as it cools.

Makes 10 muffin-sized cakes.

Meyer Lemon Sorbet
470 g meyer lemon juice
80 g glucose syrup
80 g agave nectar
80 g sugar
100 g water
1/2 tsp guar gum (or substitute pectin or a commercial sorbet stabilizer)

Blend together. Freeze in your ice cream churner as per usual.

Argan Oil Whipped Cream
Heavy cream
Sugar
Argan oil

Mix to taste and beat until whipped.

Almond Brittle
Sliced almonds
Water
Sugar
Cream of tartar

Toast sliced almonds in a dry pan on the stove until they start to brown and smell delicious. Set aside.

Heat the water, sugar, and a bit of tartar in a saucepan until it is lightly golden, a bit paler than you eventually want it to be. Stir in the toasted almonds, and spread on a silpat to cool and set.

Ah, so it turns out that I took an unplanned hiatus from blogging. Sorry about that. Dave and I just moved to a much nicer apartment, and we are finally wedding planning in earnest, so things have been pretty overwhelming around here.

As part of my return to food blogging, I have presents for you! (It’s sort of like how hobbits give presents to everyone else on their birthdays.) I have three copies each of two new books from the Culinary Institute of America to give away: Baking & Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft 2nd Edition and Remarkable Service: A Guide to Winning and Keeping Customers for Servers, Managers, and Restaurant Owners 2nd Edition.

More on the book giveaway later, or feel free to skip to the bottom of this post for instructions on how to win one of these books.

Wedding planning, did I say? It’s coming up fast, and we are caught up in the panic of it all. We finally sent out save-the-date cards, at least! Not all family friends are thrilled by them, but they tell the true story – we are utterly silly geeks in love.

I’ve also been making a lot of art, mostly handspun yarn.

I’m in love with texture, as usual. It’s much like my cooking, really.

And vivid colors.

Now when I wear out old suits (which happens frequently, what with all the lawyering), I can just cut the fabric into strips and spin it into more yarn.

I even crocheted a yarmulke for my cat brother.

Not everything is fiber art and law, though. I also finally started building blinds for our new apartment out of card catalog cards from one of Columbia University’s old defunct card catalogs.

Okay, let’s get back to what you really care about – the CIA book giveaway!

The Rules: To win one of the books, leave a comment on this post telling me which Jack: an occasional restaurant dish you’d most like to see me post the recipe for (or, y’know, just say hi!). In about two weeks, I’ll pick 6 comments randomly, and have the publisher send a copy of one of the books to each of the 6 winners. (Unfortunately, the publisher can only ship to people located in the USA or Canada.)

Again, the books are Baking & Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft 2nd Edition and Remarkable Service: A Guide to Winning and Keeping Customers for Servers, Managers, and Restaurant Owners 2nd Edition. The publisher’s blurbs are as follows:

Baking & Pastry: Mastering the Art and Craft 2nd Edition: The first edition of Baking & Pastry has taken its place alongside The Professional Chef as a must-have guide for all culinary students and professionals, and has been praised by top chefs as “the ultimate baking and pastry reference” from “the best culinary school in the world.” This edition will improve upon the first with new recipes, photos, instructional illustrations, and information on the ingredients and techniques needed to create spectacular breads and desserts.

Considered to be the most comprehensive reference on the market, Baking & Pastry contains foundational chapters covering ingredient and equipment identification, baking science and food safety, and baking formulas and percentages, as well as information on career opportunities for baking and pastry professionals. The book includes a total of 625 recipes ranging from basic to advanced in difficulty, and features appendices with useful conversion and equivalency charts, reading and resource information, and a glossary of terms. Accompanied by 389 four-color photographs and 72 illustrations, this completely revised and expanded text contains new sections on everything from baking entrepreneurship and principles of design to breakfast pastries and vegan baking.

Remarkable Service: A Guide to Winning and Keeping Customers for Servers, Managers, and Restaurant Owners 2nd Edition: The first edition of Remarkable Service and its follow-up, At Your Service, have been trusted resources in the food service industry since 2001. This new edition will be fully updated with new content and photography throughout, making it the must-have guide to service and hospitality.

Remarkable Service addresses the needs of a wide range of dining establishments, from casual and outdoor dining to upscale restaurants and catering operations. Chapters cover everything from training and hiring staff, preparation for service, and front-door hospitality to money handling, styles of modern table service, and the relationship between the front and back of the house. This new edition includes the most up-to-date information currently available on serving customers in the contemporary restaurant world.