Jumping on the Lunch Wagon

Posted on February 29, 2012 | 2 comments


Click on it to make it bigger, please.

The Lunch Box Project

Slogging through February, with an extra day, a wintry addendum. We were not gifted with a snow day this year, a day when time stands still and the air is electric with light. The daffodils have popped, three weeks ahead of schedule they say, but my spirit has not popped with them. The Ides must have it, stowed in their root cellar, letting the starch turn to sugar, sweetening me up for my vernal emergence.

Come out, come out, wherever you are!

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Posted in The Lunch Box Project, Uncategorized

Mindful Mouthful

Posted on February 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

This year, for Lent, I am swearing off…nothing. In fact, I’m going to jump on the enjoy-it-more bandwagon. Doing an about face from Faster-Harder-More to Slower-Deeper-Less. The quirk of this hat trick is, less will, in fact, be more. At least while eating. The rest of the time, mindfulness be damned. Enough already.

I eat. You eat. We don’t need to talk. Nice to know you are there. Parallel play.

Try this: take a bite. It doesn’t matter what the food is, but make sure it is something you love – let’s say it’s that

crusty bread swaddled, stinky cheese filled, mustard coated, smokedysmoked country ham laden, gherkin spooning, sandwich you covet.

Now comes the hard part. Put the fork down. This could be a lot more challenging than you imagine, because that first bite was very good and another immediately beckons. You’re hungry.

Today’s experiment in eating, however, involves becoming aware of that reflexive urge to plow through your meal like Cookie Monster on a shortbread bender. Resist it. Leave the fork on the table. Chew slowly. Stop talking. Tune in.

This year, for Lent, I am swearingoff…anything beyond germaine. Strip away the excess. No thank you. Is my mind behind it 100%? No? No thank you. Not germaine.

This year, for Lent, I am swearing off…ideals. I am swearing on…making tough choices. That’s where the petroleum-product-masquerading-as-rubber meets the road and gives you traction. Shooting you off the launching pad of essentials and into the galaxy of ideals.

This year, for Lent, my mind is full. Putting my mouth where my mind is. And my mind where my mouth is. Parallel play.

Mindful Eating as Food for Thought by Jeff Gordinier, The New York Times, February 7, 2012

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Toast Poast Number WE HAVE A WINNER!!

Posted on February 23, 2012 | 2 comments


If you lean close and squint, you will see that the toast reads:

Dear Paula,

I am pleased to announce that you are the WINNER of the Sticky Fingers contest. You and a guest will be spending the evening of March 1, 2012 with Doron Petersan at Sixth and I.

Congratulations! Well done.

Are we out of butter?

xo
Snack

Food porn? Design porn? Food porn? Design porn?

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Posted in Toast Poast, Toasters

Getting a Little Tight

Posted on February 16, 2012 | 3 comments

From The Kitchn

Holy Tosty, where have I been?? Didn’t know the Pudgy Pie had left us – they make a regular appearance at our camp-outs. Well, in case you’ve been mourning the Toas-Tite, rejoice! It’s renaissance is upon us.

This being post-modern times and all, without leaving the comfort of your desk, let alone burning your fingers at a campfire, you can go on beyond the Toas-Tite to Twitter, Facebook, T-shirts! Why just do it, when you can also wear it, shout it, align your being with it. Toas-Tite is you. No thanks, I’ll just have the toast.

Thank you, Magniferous!

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Posted in Pudgy Pies

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Get Your Sticky Fingers on A Pair of Free Tickets!

Posted on February 15, 2012 | 7 comments

Catch Doron Petersan of Sticky Fingers Bakery fame at Sixth and I in Washington, DC, on Thursday, March 1, 2012. Ms. Petersan will be there to speak, sign copies of her exciting new book, Sticky Fingers Sweets, 100 Super-Secret Vegan Recipes, and to offer tastings, too, of course.

The Lunch Encounter is pleased to offer TWO FREE TICKETS to this event! Get your stickiness on and write to me. What sticky foods make you the happy? Tell me about it! The lucky winner will be chosen via a criteria of originality, exuberance, and pure shamelessness.

DATE: Thursday, March 01, 2012
TIME: 7:00 pm
image Living the life as an Italian Jew from New York who turned vegan was challenging. Craving guilt laden foods, Doron Petersan was determined to unlock the secrets of creating their animal-free counterparts.Since opening the DC-based Sticky Fingers Bakery in 2002, Doron has been on a mission to dispel the myths that anything without butter or eggs can’t taste good, and that your palette will suffer for trying to make the world, your body, and your kitchen a better place. In Sticky Fingers’ Sweets! 100 Super-Secret Vegan Recipes, Doron shares the recipes and techniques behind her bakery’s most popular desserts and breakfast items.Sticky Fingers’ Sweets offers a range of recipes including Chocolate Love Cake, George Carmelin Cupcake (chocolate spice cake with vanilla frosting)—Doron’s vegan cupcake was declared the winner of a recent Food Network Cupcake Wars—Cowvin Cookies (the most popular item at the bakery), Little Devils (inspired by classic Devil Dogs), Peanut Butter and Banana Whoopie Pie, and Seoul Sticky Bread, among dozens of others. Book signing to follow.

No sandwiches in the new book. Boo hoo. Better luck next time in the literary department for those of us stuck more on savory than sweet. They do serve sandwiches at the bakery, though, so an in person visit is in order.

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Posted in Uncategorized

Lunch is Fundamental

Posted on February 12, 2012 | 1 comment

All pleasures are simple pleasures, fundamentally. I feel therefore I am. The eating, smelling, touching, tasting, seeing, even hearing the crackle of the waxed paper wrapping, all transmit to the brain where they are turned to thought. I think therefore I am. Simply fundamental.

Gravy, the newsletter for the  Southern Foodways Alliance is downloadable here. Mine is dropped into the I-exist-because-I-receive-mail box, and it is nice to hold while reading it, small, heavy-papered and staple bound. Of all the food newsletters, it is my favorite. Not too big, not at all fancy, and as inclusive as a church supper. I read it and feel southern. We all are, deep down, are we not? I think I exist, deep down. The rest is gravy.


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Posted in Muffaletta, New Orleans, Southern Foodways Alliance

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High Rise

Posted on February 11, 2012 | 5 comments

Did I know what I was getting into when Kinnaird+Mangan enlisted me to build a “bread centerpiece” for an American Bakers Association reception? No. Do I ever really know what I am getting myself into? Nah.  A list of required baked goods was sent to me. 
I gave it thought. While driving. Just before sleep. Over coffee. Waiting in line.

Gathering and foraging took me to the grocery, craft store, pharmacy and hardware. Several times each. Gathering and foraging. Plotting, scheming, thinking.
 
I made a trial run and realized I didn’t like the look of the metal rods and dowels. They needed texture. Floury texture. So I painted them with diluted glue and rolled them in flour. Much better.
 
I built some bread cascades with spray glue and wooden skewers. Pretty nice. Except for the big ugly holes at the end. What could go there? Set that aside for later.

The bread and rolls were left to dry so they would be strong and could support one another in a tall vessel. Some bread was too dry and shattered when I tried to stack it, or pierce it. Begin again.
 Cheerios in the top layer spilled down and filled every nook and cranny. Should have seen that coming. Begin again, cheerios on the bottom.  Better. I liked it much better with added pita. Dry pita stacks nicely, asymetrically, leaving airy spaces.    Some bread I coated with spray varnish to prevent cracking and chipping. These half bits were used to encircle the dowels, crusts facing out.

Borrowed a pair of heavy duty snippers, a metal lopper thingy that did the trick in trimming excess rods. Then I wrapped it all up to go. Layers of soft cellophane, like tissue on a bee hive do.

Okay, I had a handle on the main affair. How was I going to get it there?  Call in the transportation engineer. The handling and shipping department stepped up with cardboard, bubble wrap, yesterdays Post, and a three step delivery operation.    Oh, but first, the crowning  – actually, more of a train than a crown – touch. A garland. All decent affairs require garlands.    Signed and sealed, the caterer picked up the box – my car did not have the headroom. On the day of the event, her staff ferried it on to the site where I met them.  Parts assembled, final tweaks made, lights, camera, no action. A still life that still had life.

And then I had a drink.

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Posted in Bread, Food sculpture, Foodstyling, Styling

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We will we will snack you

Posted on February 5, 2012 | 2 comments

Image
I can watch some baseball, basketball too, hockey as well. Football? The magic eludes me. Although, four seasons of Friday Night Lights later, I am a hair’s breadth away from a seed of appreciation.

My wide view: football is the thinking person’s sport. Not baseball after all. Football? Simply watching is not enough. You need knowledge of the plays, the players, the coach’s strategy. And more, I’m sure, much more. This is commentary from a football ignoramus. I’m just too lazy to be bothered.

Basketball has continuous play. A person could appreciate basketball with closed eyes. Of course, you’d be well advised to open your eyes and take in those long stretches of gorgeousness. Barely covered. What’s not to understand?

Football, not so. Identifying superhuman strength, grace, power, fragility and speed beneath the mountains of high tech protective garments will give your imagination a superhuman work out. My brain is simply too lazy.

Give me men on skates. Larger and lumpier, from monstrous gloves to grin-stretching mouth guards, hockey gear transforms a man into a bot. A beautiful, lightening-speed shriek-gliding bot. Wielding a big stick. Add continuous play, a barebones plot and I’m there, rinkside. Put that bun in the oven!

Tonight though, I plan to work my brain over the confounding stop, start, stop again, over-blown production called the superbowl. Ads and half-time so loud and proud, they dwarf the players to elf-size. I’ve been applying myself, studying up, hitting the stacks.

Snacks! We are gonna need snacks to keep the synapses sharp. And sips. Sips to lubricate the brain matter. Lazy no more, I’ll have my eyes on those flankers, full backs, gunners and guards. Put that watermelon in the wagon!

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Posted in Superbowl, Vintage cookbooks

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A cake is a cake is a cake is a cake

Posted on January 31, 2012 | 3 comments

So a birthday cake would, were it not a cake call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which it owes
Without that title
And grant your wish undoubtedly

I am a smorgastista. Easier on my wallet then another sort of ista, and does not take up closet space.

My very own mother is an expert on birthday cakes and basks in the glow of tiny candle light brigades of scholarly glory.

“The Birthday Cake: Its Evolution from a Rite of the Elite to the Right of Everyone,” by Shirley Cherkasky is her cake chef d’oeuvre, received with exuberant interest by culinary historians and lay people worldwide.

Encyclopedia of Food and Culture

Wondering why oh why we put candles on a cake? How odd. My mother knows and so can you. She is a wonder.

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Posted in Culinary History, Sandwich cakes

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Toast Poast Number Oun

Posted on January 30, 2012 | 2 comments

A toast of one’s oun.

All properly raised children should take (and fill) orders for breakfast from parents still cover-nestled. Our manual failed to include this imperative. Should I want a toast of my oun, I am on my oun.

 If you look closely, you can see that the clipboard says “oun toast.” (It’s part of Dad’s order. One toast.  I am getting a bagel with cc).

Thank you, Suits-Herself-Cindy.

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Posted in Parenting, Toast Poast

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