Beet It!

Very timely, and quite lovely to look at, these eight beet recipes from The Atlantic seem sure to brighten up winter.

Also from The Atlantic, and I hesitate to link to this for the easily influenced to be under the influence, is a(nother) column about the benefits of moderate drinking. Apparently those of who imbibe also earn more. Drinking for dollars, as it were!
Picture from The Atlantic

The Importance of Cupcakes

The always entertaining Corby Kummer has another hunger inducing piece in the new issue of The Atlantic about cupcakes and the ongoing popularity of these frosted mini-cakes. He also laments how hard it is to get a really good cupcake....

"Cloyingly cute cupcake shops may seem passé in New York, but they continue to thrive there, and new ones seem to open across the land by the month. Silly and disappointing as most of these shops are, the craze is worth keeping—if only, like the audiences at La Scala, to keep applauding till the performers do better."

His piece is not only worth salivating over, but also educational. Did you know "...a Hostess cupcake has 180 calories. A blueberry muffin at a typical Starbucks has 360...." His main problem is with the two seemingly simple parts of these adorable desserts that turn adults into kids again, the cake and the frosting. Click the link above to read the piece, and be sure to watch the video for a visual representation of what every cupcake should be. Meanwhile, I'm on my way to hit my favorite Portland cupcake purveyor, Saint Cupcake...........


cupcake pic from The Atlantic
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one year ago today @ E.D.T.: take a few minutes to let the real world, in this piece on Afghanistan, intrude on your food dreaming. I wouldn't bring it up if it wasn't important!

Mozza Mania

The two buzzwords at restaurants around the country is "house made". You get house made cured pork products hanging in walk-in coolers and wine rooms; house made condiments (although I have yet to taste a ketchup as good as my beloved Heinz); house made pasta; house made bitters and tonics in the bar; and house made etc., etc. It's a worthy ethos, if only because it allows them to call themselves responsible, sustainable, local, and any other trend-word du jour. You also see, which is the point of this post, house made mozzarella plopped on appetizer plates across the country, which is what The Atlantic's Corby Kummer explores in his essay in the current issue. His bottom line: most shouldn't even try. He talks about a small and growing company in the industrial wasteland of outer L.A. called Gioia Cheese whose mozzarellas and their incredibly sensual cousin burrata, which I would humbly posit is the Sophia Loren of the cheese world, are becoming the stuff of culinary legend, served by food luminaries like Nancy Silverton and her partners, Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich at their restaurant Mozza in SoCal. Read for yourselves while I make my airline rezzies to South El Monte......

photo from flickr
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one year ago today @ E.D.T.: jumping through the hoop at Lovely Hula Hands!