Monday, September 14, 2009

I May Have to Change the Blog Name to....

Full Stomachs. For real. It seems like every single time I sit down to write a new post it is about what we have been eating and not much else. And here I am again about to do it again.

So what HAVE we been eating? Some good shit people.... some gooood shit. Last night we had three things made from the September issue of Gourmet magazine. Billy made the Italian parsley and beet salad with fresh ricotta while I made the cold cucumber and cubanelle soup with cashews and chives. They both turned out to be fabulous recipes and I would make both of them again for sure. We lucked out and had a great wine to drink with the meal... 2008 Fetzer Gewurtztraminer. It could not have been a more perfect match up. And it is an inexpensive bottle of wine which makes it even better.





Our third recipe form the Gourmet mag was the indulgent one... the apple pie with cheddar crust. I can't find the exact recipe online to link up to. Anyway, Billy made the crust and I made the filling.... then I assembled the pie. Due to the influence of the Gewurtztraminer and the fact that I was listening to my George Michael/Michael Jackson station on Pandora I neglected to add the 3 tablespoons of flour to the apple filling which resulted in a pretty watery pie in the end. It is still incredibly delicious but I was pissed at myself for flaking out and messing it up. Oh well, it will not stop us from eating it! And allow me to say this... do not be skeptical of adding a half a pound of sharp cheddar to your pie crust. People, it is waaaaayyy better than you can imagine.





What have we been doing other than cooking up a storm and eating? Well... working, that's what. My work at the chocolate shop is insane busy right now. I can't even keep up. The owners are out of town for a few weeks and the whole sale orders just keep rollin' in along with the fact that the walk in traffic is three times as much as what would be traditional for this time of the year. All this adds up to mean one thing... my co-worker Marie and I are getting our butts kicked.

Billy snapped a few shots of what I was working on today. Here I am dipping Spats which are caramel (made by Billy) topped off with tamari roasted pinon nuts and dipped in dark chocolate. I am doin' the dipping here....




And here is a close up to really get your mouth watering...




I am also knee deep in a special order for a couple of hundred turtles. Normally we do a caramel with toasted pecans dipped in chocolate called a Don Juan Pecan but these are amped up a notch to look like an actual turtle. You get more pecans... which is always a good thing.



So there you have it! Food seems to be the dominant theme in our lives of late. I have been missing the Airstream these past few weeks so we are hoping to take a long weekend in October and head up into Northern New Mexico to a lakefront campground with the trailer and kayak and get one more go at it before the real cold weather sets in.

Drop me a quick comment and say HI readers! How is everyone doin'? And thanks for staying with me through these slow posting times... Cheers!



5 comments:

Momo said...

Hi............
and I would also like to mention that I gained 3 pounds just reading this post.
The next time that you come home to visit please bring that "dipping fork thing" with you.

Gordon Nicholds said...

Helllooooo! Sounds like y'all are living the good life, once again. Love yer blog posts, and your photos are rockin! BTW, how 'bout some chocolate covered cheese curds? A lil food porn for your fans in 'Sconnie would be nice...

Annie said...

Hey guys--glad to see you back here in Santa Fe. I need to come over and check out the chocolate shop. I don't know how you can take exposure to that much chocolate--does it decrease the desire? Fun to see the pie--my sister and I have a pie blog: http://pieistheanswer.blogspot.com/
so we are way into pie!

Bethany said...

Mom... I will wear the fork in a holster on my hip... I can dip anywhere, anytime at a moments notice.

Cappy... do you think being dipped in chocolate would add to or decrease the squeak factor?

Annie... HI! Thanks for dropping in. Just checked out out your pie blog. Nice work! Thanks for the link up... I will add you in on my foodie list. Stop by the shop any time. Billy is usually there with me on Monday's.

Karen/Small Earth Vintage said...

So now I have to go buy Gourmet. Because the pie, beet salad, and soup all sound perfect. And oh lord--those Spats look sooo good! Are they a little salty from the tamari? I love that salty/sweet combo. And *pinon* nuts!

(Your pie looks great and not at all watery in the photo.)

You can keep writing about food. I'm fine with that. As long as I get to see Rudy every now and then.