annaramma

Orange + Chocolate = Love

I told you I would do something with all that orange rind!  Just like most things, it was vastly improved by being dipped in chocolate.  Dark chocolate with a particularly smooth texture.

Oh mama, it's good stuff.

I had frozen the orange rind, so I started by breaking that up and putting it on a wire rack to thaw and dry a bit.  Then I chopped and chopped and chopped the chocolate.  I dropped it into a metal bowl atop a heating pad atop my wooden salad bowl.  This rig, though kind of funky, makes a great system for melting chocolate without losing the temper.  Ha ha, don't make the chocolate lose its temper!

The dipped rinds went right down on waxed paper and then the fridge.  They set up beautifully and are oh so tasty.  I also dipped some dried apricots and candied ginger for variety.  They're all excellent with a cup of tea and a rainy day.

I love this story

I was just prepping a mess of veggies this weekend and thinking about the New York veggie peeler guy.  My OXO peeler is starting to lose it's bite and I thought "Hmmm . . . I bet I could get a $5 peeler in Union Square that wouldn't go dull!"  His presence and later his biography have really stuck in my mind.  The combination of a traditional street-seller, a kitchen gadget and a story of achieving wealth through hard work and thrift . . . well all those things are near and dear to me. 

Then, I run across this Serious Eats article about his daughter.  I love that she's continuing his tradition.  Next time I'm in New York, I'm taking myself to Union Square and buying a peeler!

Just a snack

A slice of sweet baguette, a swipe of soft butter and a few shavings of chocolate.  That's all I need to conjure up an afternoon at my grandmother's house. 

The bitter chocolate melts with the butter in your mouth and the chewy bread just brings it all together.  Oh, and even though a cup of tea could be good, a cold glass of milk is even better.

This particular shaved chocolate was made in preparation for dipping my homemade orange rind.  I figured I would avoid drinking a double-boiler's worth of tempered chocolate if I had a few of these set aside.  Ha!

Cute as a Button

I found this vintage button ring at the always fabulous Antiques By the Bay.  I really loved the faded desert tones and bubbly texture.  It's pretty large, so I'm guess it came from a coat, maybe something tweedy?  It was poorly assembled, but I was pretty sure I could do something with it.  I haggled for half off, the seller was super-nice, and counted myself lucky.

After a little clean-up and some E6000 (it really is the best stuff!), the ring is sturdy and comfortable to wear.

Hot cha cha!

I found it!  I found my missing sriracha!

Sorta.

This was the best I could do without leaving the county.  Clearly I'll need to make another trip to the asian market, but for now this will tide me over.

This chili sauce is a bit milder and sweeter, but it still tastes great on pizza and I'm thinking it could be a killer on tofu sandwiches.

Yeo's appears to have a quite a few products, but this was all they carried at my local mexican market.  My friend suggested they might have something that would be close, and Yeo's is certainly a lot better than what the health food stores carried.  Since the sriracha squeeze bottle is much more convenient for serving, I transferred the sauce into the old container.  It also helps convince me it's the real thing. 

Blahhhhh

This is a pretty embarrassing photo.  Though I never really knew how blah it was until just this moment, this is my dingy hallway.  It barely qualifies as a hallway, it's really just a collection of doorways (living room, bed room, guest bed room, bathroom, closet and kitchen)  with less than a yard of wall space. 

But that tininess is kind of freeing.  I could do anything with it!  I could paint it magenta and it would still just qualify as a pop! of color.  

I'm thinking some wallpaper or wallpaper-like stenciling could be in order.  I'm thinking something along these lines?  Now colors are a little tricky.  There's a log of beigel, as you can see, but there are some colors to compliment.  The living room is a pinky taupe with mossy green, gray and a few pops of orange.  My bed room has a pretty bright green and I'm toying with the idea of painting my guest bedroom ice blue. 

What color(s) do you think would work here?  What type of design?  Floral?  Abstract?  Delicate?  Bold?

Coconut Goodness

 

I had a few people email me about my rice pudding recipe and the kind of Coconut Milk I used.  Though I'm a big fan of decadent desserts, I found the light Coconut Milk added plenty of richness.  If you found yourself with a spare in the pantry, throwing in a can of full-fat coconut milk wouldn't hurt things a bit. 

That said, there's some coconut products which will pretty much guarantee a ruined pudding. 

Using all Coconut Cream will probably result in something so rich, you won't be able to eat more than a spoonful.  It's essentially like substituting heavy cream for lowfat milk.  Sure, if you were making a sauce you might like to boost the unctuous texture, but I think it would be way too much for something that's supposed to be a relatively wholesome dessert.

Cream of Coconut would also be too rich and way too sweet.  Cream of Coconut is essentially coconut cream with sugar, think Piña Colada not Tom Kha Ghai.  If you tried making your pudding with Cream of Coconut, you'd probably end up with a thick painfully sweet sludge.  Ewwww!

Isn't this a delicious photo of a coconut?  Click on the image to see more about the photographer.

Your Handwriting HERE

YourFonts is a spiffy little web doohickie that lets you create a font from your own handwriting.  Not only does this allow you to make the electronic world a smidge more personal, but you can mass produce labels and other crafty bits.

Without having to mess around with scanning and photoshop and squishing things into the right size or shape, you can just use your very own font.

Check out some samples here.