Gastronomista + Trends on Trends - Garden to Glass Sous Vide Bloody Mary

I've been really excited about this post for quite some time now - a boozy collaboration between Gastronomista and the talented ladies behind Trends on Trends, the lifestyle blog that focuses on delicious restaurants, travel, and tempts readers with their gorgeous food photography.

Maple Maple Maple

We love maple syrup.  Maple syrup on our pancakes, on our bacon, in our cocktails, in our candy, we want it all the time (and we aren't ashamed of it, damn it).

Best Made Company has really got us craving some waffles this afternoon with this gorgeous half-gallon glass jug of organic medium amber syrup made especially for Best Made.  It calls to us, teases us, begs us to incorporate this liquid gold into every meal.  And we are up for the challenge.  Not difficult to do when it means that you have to buy one, or three, of these stunning bad boys:

Best Made Maple Syrup - A Jug of Beauty

Win Friends and Influence People

Best Made Organic Maple Syrup

$68

Get 'em quick - these beauts are sure to go fast.

A Royal Breakfast

Tomorrow is the Royal Wedding - just in case you haven't received the memo. 

We're excited for all the fanfare - and wishing that we had the day off in America as well to celebrate.  We would certainly spend the day drinking mimosas out of tea cups wearing festive hats.

The Queen and Soon-to-be Princess Kate - in Hats

Loyal to our English roots, we will be up at 5 am to watch the BBC and we will be making the Queen's Scones to set the mood.

 

Queen Elizabeth made these scones in 1959 for President Dwight Eisenhower at Balmoral Castle near Edinburgh.  A year after the barbecue in the Scottish highlands, she sent the recipe to the President.  This recipe is now included  in an upcoming exhibition at the National Archives.  For more information, visit their website.

Queen Elizabeth’s Drop Scones

Ingredients
4 teacups of flour
4 tbsp of  treacle (sugar syrup)
2 teacups of milk
2 whole eggs
2 tsps baking soda
3 tsps cream of tartar
2 tbsp melted butter

Directions
Beat eggs, sugar and about half the milk together. Add flour, and mix well. Add the remaining milk as required. Mix in bicarbonate and cream of tartar, fold in the melted butter.

Drop onto baking sheet by the teaspoon full. Bake at 400 degree for 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Enough for 16 people.



We love the teacup as a measuring device!  How sophisticated!

We will measure using this amazing teacup by Undergrowth::

Blaue Blume Tea Cup - Undergrowth Design

 Until the procession at 5am!

Eggs on Wry

In November of 1972, socialite and Warholian muse Maxime de la Falaise requested a recipe from her friend, famed author Vladimir Nabokov, to include in her upcoming tome, Seven Centuries of English Cooking. His submission was never included, but was discovered later in his archives, along with the note, "Never acknowledge(d) by Maxime." Perhaps the wit was too dry, or the recipe too elementary? Regardless, the entry is gleefully, irrepressibly Nabokov.

Eggs à la Nabocoque

Boil water in a saucepan (bubbles mean it is boiling!). Take two eggs (for one person) out of the refrigerator. Hold them under the hot tap water to make them ready for what awaits them.

Place each in a pan, one after the other, and let them slip soundlessly into the (boiling) water. Consult your wristwatch. Stand over them with a spoon preventing them (they are apt to roll) from knocking against the damned side of the pan.

If, however, an egg cracks in the water (now bubbling like mad) and starts to disgorge a cloud of white stuff like a medium in an old-fashioned seance, fish it out and throw it away. Take another and be more careful.

After 200 seconds have passed, or, say, 240 (taking interruptions into account), start scooping the eggs out. Place them, round end up, in two egg cups. With a small spoon tap-tap in a circle and hen pry open the lid of the shell. Have some salt and buttered bread (white) ready. Eat.

Via

Photo via TheStoneSoup

The Cider Affair

For as long as we can remember, maple syrup has been the main squeeze for our pancakes. But we have a confession to make: we've been fooling around on that sappy standby.

The nice fellas down at Court Street Grocers introduced us to Wood's Boiled Cider, a condensed apple syrup out of Springfield, VT. The company has been pressing cider and producing the brew on the same machines since 1882, and the finished product remains deliciously free of any additional sweeteners or preservatives today. Drizzled over fluffy flapjacks, the Grocers told us, the cider is heavenly.

We bought a bottle on the spot.

Sure enough, Wood's Boiled Cider is a worthy companion for Sunday brunch, but the syrup has proven a versatile partner for Old Fashioneds, Hot Toddies, and homemade sodas, as well. The company website suggests you glaze your turkey and pork loin with Boiled Cider, too, and we're dying to try it - that is, if we don't run out of this golden elixir first.

Don't worry, maple - we still adore you. But all is fair in love and breakfast.

For Your Walls

Efrek Elie, the Tel Aviv-based designer and photographer behind "Petek Design," has created a series of great foodie posters for hanging in your breakfast nook, above your coffee table and even your bedroom. She's offering a 10% discount for the holidays through her Etsy store. Happy shopping!

Breakfast Is Power, $29

Spooning, available in a few colors and sizes, $14.50-69

Two for Tea, available in a variety of sizes, from $29-59

We're Rooting for Cheerios.

Loving the new video for Dale Earnhardt Jr Jr - Nothing but our Love.

A Baker, A Surfer, An Accordianist & Her Lover

Chad Robertson's new book, Tartine Bread (Chronicle, September 2010) from his eponymous well-loved San Francisco restaurant showcases his famous but humble country-style artisan breadbaking methods. This video of Chad and his bread tasting buddies has us fully on-board with the program. We're packing our bags and hopping a flight Westerly, so we can tear into some piping hot, crusty bread tomorrow morning.

Tartine Bread from 4SP Films on Vimeo.

Yo Quiero Pancakes! Donnez-moi Pancakes!

In the words of our dear Stewie, "I Want Pancakes."

New Yorkers have only 10 days left to enjoy the bounty of Pancake Month at Clinton Street Baking Co. The doors open for dinner at 6, and you should plan to get there early. The line is around the block, as per usual.

Clinton St. is serving its Pancake Month flavors Monday through Friday from 8am-4pm and 6pm-11pm, at 15 bucks per piled-high plate. We realize we missed the ball on the first part of the month, but we'll relive it all in anticipation of next year's chocolate blood orange extravaganza. We applaud the joint for going in for the truly delicious stuff - the desserty stuff - and none of that bacon-with-my-banana baloney. We'll take our pancakes sweet, not savory, for all time to come.

The Entire Calendar:

• February 1, 2, 3: chocolate & blood orange pancakes w/candied orange glaze
• 4, 5: poached pears with vanilla bean whipped cream & warm maple butter
• 8, 9: fresh coconut pancakes with passion fruit syrup and bananas
• 10, 11: roasted apples with candied walnuts and warm maple caramel
• 12, 15: chocolate chunks, fresh raspberries, and raspberry-caramel sauce
• 16, 17: brown sugar pecans, bananas and cinnamon maple butter
• 18, 19, 22: classic chocolate chunk
• 23, 24: fresh blackberries, pecan streusel, warm maple butter
• 25, 26: crunchy bananas with cinnamon-chili-chocolate sauce

Oh, it is a crime that Pancake Month falls on the shortest of all months. Check it out at:

Clinton Street Baking Co.
4 Clinton Street
New York, NY 10002
(646)602-6263

Flakes

Maybe we aren't the biggest fans of cereal (we tend to agree with Miss Pussy Katz, played by the indie goddess Zooey Deschanel, that cereal is a non-food), but we stumbled upon the film Flakes from 2007 and are reconsidering the concept. We love the cereal bar idea - only if they also have wi-fi and maybe serve a martini or three. Maybe 'tis time to look into designing some sort of coco-puff Bailey's cocktail...hmmm....


Flakes also has us looking at more vintage cereal boxes, given that we are total suckers for packaging.

Cereal Connoisseurs