Tis the Season for Food

Ok, so Thanksgiving happened. Who’s still hungry?

Me! Although I shouldn’t be, for sure. We are back from a long weekend of pretty much non-stop eating. Thursday was a traditional Thanksgiving meal in Virginia, followed by 36 hours of solid eating on Friday and Saturday at my parent’s house. Then Saturday night we were back in DC for dinner at Rosemary’s Thyme Bistro where I was introduced to a Turkish flat-bread dish called pide (similar to a pizza). Amazing. On top of the turkey, stuffing, and mashed potatoes, I also ate pork roast, Lebanon sweet bologna, mint and pea soup, sticky buns, pumpkin pie and an apple gallette. So many good things! I am excited to try my hand at all of these dishes on my own here in St. Louis, so the next few months should be delicious.

I also picked up a few new cookbooks from my mom which I am looking forward to checking out. I read a lot of Beard On Breadon the plane on the way home and while I kinda get it, I still have questions about the five minutes bread techniques. It still seems like the recipes are very similar, only the old fashioned technique takes longer. The Beard recipes are certainly not quick, so I guess the only thing that I can do is to start making bread his way and compare the taste to the five minute versions. I have to say that he makes all of his recipes sound tasty. He also is a big fan of toast with butter, as I am and mentions which bread makes the best toast. Another good point that Beard makes is that every loaf will be different, no matter what you do. This is what makes home made bread so awesome.

While I was at my mom’s house I also spent a couple of hours in the basement going through her collection of dishes and cookware. I found a ton of stuff that I’d like to use as props in my photography as well as more practical items that I want to use just for cooking. One of the more interesting items is a antique glass juicer, which may be minimally useful (I have a nice plastic one that works great) but is really attractive. And I picked up some bread pans so that I can make sandwich loaves. My sister also gave me a set of three colorful china espresso cups with saucers which are really beautiful. While I was able to drag home a bagful of dishes on the plane, I found so much neat stuff that I had to ship a box that I just couldn’t carry via USPS. We shall see if I get a box full of broken glass delivered on Friday. And on top of all the stuff I carried home and shipped there are still at least a couple more boxes worth of kitchen items in my parents’ basement that I poached. Major score! You can’t find this stuff at Crate & Barrel. Very cool! Now I just have to figure out how to store and catalog all of these new props!