Steeped Coffee A New Brew To Love

We love coffee. It's just that simple. Yet we hate making it, going for easy ways, from Keurig pods to instant. These are OK, but not so flavorful. Now there's a new coffee - appropriately called Steeped that's sweeping java lovers off their feet.

Steeped is an unusual coffee in the sense that it comes in teabag like sachets. These are bigger than teabags, more like a mammoth sized bag. The instructions are simple. Submerge. Saturate. Steep.It's a great coffee to bring to work, on vacation and even on picnics. What I like about it there are no grounds or dregs to deal with after it's all gone.It's precision ground and nitro sealed for the best taste possible.I love this coffee, - its' taste is the best I've tasted in a long time.

 There are

                Driftwood,a French Roast, Odyssey  Blend Dark Roast  and California Medium Roast

There is also the Sunrise Blend Light Roast and Eventide Decaf. My favorite is the Driftwood which has a creamy dark chocolate flavor  which makes for an excellent hot and cold drink. I also like the fruity Decaf too. Steeped Coffee's roasts all have a lovely sweet caramelized flavor that makes it down right delicious. It's worth getting their monthly subscription.

Steeped Coffee is the next wave of instantly brewed coffees. They are one of the best tasting brews today. Try them and enjoy their amazing flavor.

CBD Teas The Latest Trend

CBD or cannabidiol is everywhere these days. It can be found in lotions, shampoos, edibles and now potables. CBD Living has added three flavorful loose leaf teas to its' long list of CBD products. Are they any special than regular loose leaf brands? Not really? Are they flavorful? Absolutely.

CBD Living manufactures a wide variety of CBD products. There the edibles which include milk and dark chocolate bars, tinctures, soaps, lotions and even suppositories. Their teas are loose leaf and , popular right now. They come in an array of flavors, from matcha to blackberry. I love tea so I had to try three flavors that appealed to me.

Their chai tumeric tea is the best chai I've had in a long while. The mix contains 150 mg of CBD (a cup has only seven All CBD Living's teas have this amount added) but also has turmeric along with organic ginger and cinnamon chips plus orange peel for a nice citrus aftertaste.

Another favorite is the coconut which is loaded with coconut shred and extract.It is blended with green Rooibis Tea and full spectrum hemp extract - which is the pure oil extracted from the hemp plant. It has a lovely tropical taste and the tea would be good iced on a hot summer's day

Another fruity flavor that not only soothing but delicious is the mango herbal tea. This drink has mango extract as its' top note flavor and organic dried peach as the bottom note which give the tea a bright, fruity flavor. As with the coconut there is also full spectrum hemp extract. Again this would be a great iced tea during the warmer months.Next on my list are their other teas - matcha , Berry Black and Passion Green.

CBD Living Loose Leaf Teas are the perfect antidote to today's super busy world. Brew them, and enjoy the rich flavor and the calming effect they have. It's like a vacation in a cup.

Food Treks

Foodies love to try all sorts of different food. They travel the globe enjoying the flavors of a country. It may be pasta in Tuscany or sushi in Osaka. Travel companies and guides have  up picked up on this and now offering food based trips. It goes far and wide, from walrus meat in Siberia to blackeyed pea stew in Ghana.

New York Times restaurant critic ,Ligaya Mishan, took a break from writing reviews to explore the new trend in foodie traveling. We have Anthony Bourdain to thank for this adventurous spirit. He gave Americans the courage and curiosity to go off the beaten path while on vacation and sample street fare and trying tasting menus in private homes. Attempts to follow Chef Bourdain's itinerary are typically orchestrated by by small, indy tour operators. They also have roots in the place so they know to bring visitors to home chefs selling pho from their kitchens or small business owners that also make sandwiches or kabobs on  a small stove at the back of their shops.Now international tour  companies are taking notice and planning their own culinary treks. One of the highest profile  contenders, the Monacan based Silversea, who has just partnered with cruise giant Royal Caribbean has planned a new 596 (!) passenger ship built expressly for culinary voyages.It will have a test kitchen that doubles as a clubhouse. However that launches a year from now in 2020.

Gastro-pilgrims, as they're sometimes called, won't wait. There are so many different tours right now, catering to the whopping ninety-three percent (!)food travelers.These are people who are not satisfied with local buffets. They want cooking  classes in Oaxaca, and even trips to floating markets like the one in Kashmir. More and more tour operators are  also trying to give these travelers a sense of substance of the lives of their chefs and servers.Mexico City food tour coordinator, Rocio Vazquez Landeta of Eat Like A Local is conscious of the class discrepancy between her tourists and the food vendors they visit. She makes a point of paying vendors full price for their goods and time spent making the foods instead of demanding discounts like other tour guides do. She has also hired an English tutor for the vendors' kids who at eight and eleven, are already working with their parents.She tips them for weekend tours they conduct.Then there is Mona Boyd, the Arkansas born founder of Landtours in Accra, Ghana. She arranged for small tour groups to not only dine with local home chefs but also to cook with them. An informal setting like this can foster a more candid cultural exchange. However , all homes and situations have to be vetted. Tourists can't get sick drinking unpurified water or freak out when they see the home chef accidentally drop the main course on a dirty floor.

It's now possible for foodies to travel the world looking for their wildest culinary adventures.The world is their oyster. Literally.

French Appetizers A Book Of Treats

Appetizers are usually the best part of a party or a meal. They're fun bites full of flavor. Even better are French ones, ripe with sophisticated flavors and ingredients. Now there's a new cookbook chock full of amuse bouches that will make any gathering a special event.

French Appetizers (Gibbs Smith Publishing 2019) was written by Marie Asselin, a famous food writer from Quebec who created the multi award winning  blogger Food Nouveau and author of Simply Citrus. In this latest book, she devotes all the recipes to apero,  a kind of gathering where bites and aperitifs are served.It's a French and French  Canadian gathering that translates into cocktails here in the States.It is an amazing book, with beautiful photographs by award winning food photographer Catherine Cote.It is divided into seven sections  such as Basics and Condiments , Breads, Sandwiches and Toasts and ends with Drinks. The book starts out with menu ideas.Ms. Asselin  has them listed from quick and easy which is a mix of homemade and store bought to the luxurious which can be made for birthdays, anniversaries and New Year's Eve. There's also a vegetarian version and dairy free one.There's even one for a park or beach apero as well as one for a large crowd. There is also good advice for planning a stress free apero with ideas as making recipes before hand and then freezing them, along with asking guests to help and always keeping staples on hand. The most important is planning and prepping ahead to allow for the most minimum work in the kitchen. After all, an apero is all about not just enjoying the food but also time spent with guests.

The recipes are amazing. Readers , especially Francophiles, will feel like kids in a candy store with this book. I love it. There's about two dozen recipes I am longing to try. There is a recipe for three kinds of tapenade, one with za'atar and green olives, along with black olive and lemon and sun dried tomato and basil. This is an easy recipe that anyone can make and serve on rounds of toasted French bread.The chicken and olive meatballs are another must try, as they would make excellent bites.She also takes traditionally sweet recipes and turns them into savory ones. Sweet buttery madeleines turn into a cheesy treat when Parmesan cheese and Tapenade replaces sugar. Another cookie  turned into a cracker is palmieres, those puffy puff pastry treats. Herbs, cheese and classic pistou, a tomato-y pesto.
Ms. Asselin's recipes aren't all French. There are also hummus and falafel recipes too,perfect with her savory shortbread sable cookies. A well rounded apero also has vegetables too and there are some mouth watering ones.Radish lovers will adore the veggie sauteed in bourbon and butter while vegans will go wild for eggplant caviar. There are also soup recipe such as the velvety cauliflower and apple veloute - a nice break from the nibbles. All aperos have a sweet ending and there are recipes for clafoutis bars and salted butter caramels. The drink recipes are for simple syrup and a kir cocktail.

French Appetizers is the must have book for hosts wanting to have this kind of get together. The recipes are delicious and varied. Perfect for the perfect apero.

The Charm of New Mexican Cooking

Every state has foods that define it. New York  has apple pie and turnovers, a nod to the many orchards  upstate . The cuisine of Georgia has grits and peaches. Then there's New Mexico with its' variety of corn - masa- jalapenos and chiles. An eight-eight year old cookbook is making a comeback with time tested recipes that highlight the area.

Historic Cookery: Authentic New Mexican Food (Gibbs Smith Publishing, reprinted 2019) was written in 1932 by Fabiola Cabeza de Baca Gilbert. Ms. Gilbert would still be known if she had never created  the cookbook. She was daring and headstrong from a culture that raised women to be meek housewives and a country that dismissed her because of her heritage and her sex.Ms. Gilbert was born in 1894 to a prominent and centuries old New Mexican  family with strong ties to Spain.As with other strong minded women of her generation, she persisted. She started off in education and then delved into spreading the New Mexican culture to the mostly Anglo American population of the time.. The cookbook is a compilation of basic New Mexican dishes which for the first time were written down with measurements.A second printing in 1959 updated the recipes and a copy was sent to every governor in the union. It was the brainchild of  Thomas J .Mabry, a New Mexican senator  alsowho sent a bag of pinto beans with every cookbook. This reintroduced America to chile, making it one of the country's top dishes.

I like this book. It's a tiny one, without the pretense of modern cookbooks riddled with the author's history and chatty stories about the recipes.The writing is vintage, reminiscent of our mothers' and grandmothers' cookbooks.There are only eight small sections with the back offering luncheon and dinner menus - again a harking back to a more elegant time.Many of the recipes can easily be made today however be warned about the baking. Years ago ovens didn't have temperature regulators. Baking recipes have the the instructions as "bake in a moderate oven". (figure 350 -375 degrees Farenheit - I'd go with 350 just to be on the safe side). Another aspect is that New Mexican cooking uses a snout to tail philosophy with recipes for tripe ,menudo , homemade blood pudding - morcilla and kidneys -rinones. There are other meat recipes such as stuffed fowl (which could be chicken, turkey or even pheasant) stuffed with a mix of beef, raisins , pinon nuts and dark chocolate). Of course there are quesadillas recipes along with homemade tacos and tortillas,Beans are big in the diet and there are many, with variations involving chickpeas. I love the hot chocolate recipe along with the one for emmeladas, fried cakes in syrup. The book ends with a curious chapter on gruel, made with water and cornmeal. It's a thick soup made for young children the elderly and the sick, good for those who can't handle solids.

Historic Cookery - Authentic New Mexican Food is a timeless classic that fits in perfectly with today's recipes and tastes. It brings the first fusion cooking of  Spanish and indigenous into the public eye. Classic dishes, like classic styles and cars never goes out of fashion.

The Lamb Experiment Part Two Icing Is Coming

This is part two of the Lamb Experiment. Yesterday I baked the Wilton lamb using my Mom's mold. It came out pretty OK. Now was the time  to ice and decorate it.

This is the original instruction booklet that came with the mold. I used the original icing recipe with one difference.I made it vegan.

I used Country Crock's baking stick along with Crisco's vegetable shortening. I wasn't a big fan of shortening until I saw what it can do to icing. It gave it a creamy texture and a lovely white color.

Confectioner's sugar was Domino's - what else. I used only four and a half cups instead of the recommended five.

It really is the perfect white icing. 

The Wilton recipe recommended a 1/4 cup of milk, except that  milk can make the icing spoil if it's left out.I went vegan and used Blue Diamond Almond milk instead.

It was perfect. I'm still amazed at how creamy the icing is.

The decorating requires a bit of the icing to be colored for the eyes,nose mouth and ears. I used Wilton's, putting two blobs of frosting in coffee cups. They were decorated with Wilton's gel dyes.

I stole a trick from The Great British Baking Show and put the dye on a toothpick for the right amount of color. It was then twirled into the icing..It produced cotton candy pink for the mouth nose and ears.

And a sweet cotton candy blue for the eyes

This is Lambie. The white spots are the flour left from baking. It can be gently scraped off with a butter knife.

Remember, to give any cake a crumb coating or a first layer of icing before the actual frosting and decorating.

Then it was onto the fluffy fleece.

Again I used Wilton's plastic and disposable decorating bags and tips. These are neat because they're printed with a line telling you where to end filling it.

Don't make the mistake I did. Please chill the icing before using. It gets messy and gooey as all get out when it's warm.

Here she is. pretty as ever.

I added tart blackberries for some fun and to offset all that sweet icing.

Miss Lambie is just the first in a series of lambs.I plan on making a vegan one , along with a chocolate one with coffee icing. It should be fun. 

Ewe'll find making an Easter lamb enjoyable. (sorry, I could not resist.)It's a great family and friends project.

The Lamb Experiment Part One

I decided to do a tester lamb,just to see if I can do it. First there was the form.

Then it was greasing the two sides. I used I Can't Believe It's Not Butter to grease it. If you're planning on making this lamb, then use big gobs of margarine or Baker's Joy,. Every dent and indentation has to be greased.

Onto flouring. I used my tried and true Stop and Shop flour. Again, I think I was a little too generous with it.Both sides do need to be coated but don't go overboard -like I did. Once that's done then it's time to prepare a tray or pan to catch any drippy batter.I lined a cookie sheet with tin foil.

                             Now it's time to mix. The Dream Whip recipe calls for four eggs

             Plus one package of cake mix. I used Duncan Hynes French vanilla along with one packet of Dream Whip. The liquid was just one cup of cold tap water - that's it. The Dream Whip is the sugary looking mix on the right

This is the batter , mixed with an electric mixer for four minutes.

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It takes five cups of batter to fill the pan. Make sure it's filled in evenly,especially around the head and ears.

You have to put four to five toothpicks in the neck area to make sure the head stays on. You can use skewers too, but it may look like Frankenlamb.Just be careful when it's sliced.

Now it's tying the neck and body to make sure that the batter doesn't outgrow the pan. You can use both foil and twine. I used both.

                                      Keep in mind that when baking the front of the lamb is the back. The       backside has a steam hole in it as indicated by the circles around it. Use it when you have to insert a cake thermometer (recommended) or a toothpick to check the cake's doneness.

There was enough extra batter to make four cupcakes.

The cupcakes took only twenty minutes. The lamb a good fifty , both in a 350 degree oven.

These were the best cupcakes I've ever made.I am definitely going to add Dream Whip to box mixes from now on (and maybe nix all that icing too)

This is the back side baked. The white is the flour which I now know I added too much. It can be scraped off with a butter knife or even a spoon.

This is the front. You can see the indentations for the eyes, mouth and nose.

It does have to be wrapped up for the night before frosting.Use Saran wrap to retain the moisture.

Tomorrow - the icing.

I don't know how my Mom did it, baking these for family, neighbors and friends. Hopefully mine will be just as loved. We'll see.