But there’s a step up from this, and that’s when you go to a party filled with hundreds of people who LOVE and make GREAT food and there’s GREAT food and drink, to boot. That, my friends, is a FOOD LOVE FEST!
That was the scene at Santos Party House last Monday for the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP) Launch Party for “The Fashion of Food” Program. In March 2012, the IACP annual conference is coming to New York City for the first time in thirty years. The theme of the conference is the The Fashion of Food: an exploration of where food, fashion and media connect.
]]>I had the absolute DELIGHT! of hosting NYC COOKIE Swap yesterday with Maggy Keets, Gail Dosik and Ken Leung. What a fun event! The local and not so local food community came out in droves with their A-GAME cookies and it was STUPENDOUS!
I made: Cranberry Pepita Rugelach with Apple Honey Jelly | Stained Glass Ginger Cookies | Peppermint Chocolate Bark Stars
Let my video tell the tale of tasty treats…
]]>Then I said, “Use coconut milk if you want them to be vegan.” That, was a moment of GENIUS! And that’s how I made them for Thanksgiving and they were FANTABULOUS!
]]>I lightened the original recipe which had six tablespoons of butter in it, by leaving that out and added a lot more feta and a little more sour cream. I decided to roast the garlic so I added a lot more of it since the flavor of roasted garlic is softer. Oh, and I increased the scallions, too. You can substitute chives. Maybe with all that butter you could mold it and serve it like a terrine. I thought it was unnecessary. Now it’s got balls—Just the way I like it!
I used this as one of the layers in the Roasted Garlic & Feta, Butternut Squash, Beet & Cranberry Parfait on my Thanksgiving 2011 Menu
]]>If I could have Thanksgiving every day my world would be a better place. I really think it should be a mandatory once-a-month occurrence for every family and families of friends. Cooking food with people you love and sharing it is a visceral bonding experience. It’s like a testimony to LOVE. Plan to get in the kitchen, cook meals together and share them more often. If more people did this our worlds would be a better places and the world would surely improve. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!
Here’s my 2011 menu:
]]>Unless they already don’t eat gluten, they usually get really antsy and whiny and say, “Please don’t make me choose!.”
Me, I’d kick pasta and bread to the curb and live on rice and potatoes! Although my least favorite way of eating potatoes is mashed—people find this CRAZY—but I love them every other way: baked; steamed; scalloped; fried; roesti; boiled; roasted; pancakes; stewed; curried, etc… And of course, home fries! If I was told I could not make this recipe any more, I would get antsy and whiny and my world would shrink measurably.
]]>When Ken and I decided to host Pie Party Potluck LIVE!! I kept imagining what it would be like? How many people/pies would actually show up? How many people can we fit at Rodeo Bar? Have we invited too many people? Too few? Can we fit more? Weeks and weeks of questions that would only be answered when the day actually came.
]]>I felt a little like I cheated because I wanted to make a gluten free flour based crust using chick pea flour, but my test crust went from OK to awful. I decided to stick to making something that was delicious and gluten free without having to reinvent the wheel.
]]>One year, I wound up with a several pounds of dried apricots after the Chocolate Show. They sat for months and got drier and drier. I kept moving the bag around thinking, “I have to do something with these!.” But they continued to sit around and mock me.
]]>This dough is easy to make and requires no resting so it’s FAST—another thing I love in a recipe! I love working with this dough because it’s oily and doesn’t stick to your hands and is well behaved when you roll it. When baked, the texture is a little flaky, yet it’s strong enough to hold a heavy filling.
]]>I’ve made what seems like a zillions of pies since then, but the first one was the catalyst. Wherever Edie is, I know she’s thrilled to bits that those first lessons have led to Pie Party Potluck LIVE!
Join food bloggers, food writers, food entrepreneurs, chefs, bakers, restaurateurs, other food biz peeps and pie enthusiasts on October 15th at the Rodeo Bar eating pie!!!
Ken and I are so excited to get to hang out with old friends (and eat pie!) and to meet a whole bunch of friends from Twitter in real life (and eat pie) and to meet a bunch of new people (and eat pie!). Come share the PIE LOVE!
]]>On Saturday, October 15th, 2011, pie enthusiasts (who live or can get to New York City) and I will be able to get some pie in-mouth satisfaction.
]]>A little over two weeks ago, the unthinkable happened to a food blogger friend of mine, Jennifer Perillo.
]]>More than sixty food bloggers and people who love them gathered in Pennsylvania to be together as a community. It was live. It was between people and it was exhilarating.
]]>You say, “pie.” I answer, “Black Bottom Banana Cream Pie.”
In my show, The Fried Chicken Theory According to Jackie Gordon, I introduce the dessert platter featuring this pie, by calling myself, “The Pimp of Pie”. If I were the pimp of pie this would be one of the finest “ladies” in my stable. It’s layers of espresso chocolate ganache in a graham cracker crust, topped with freshly sliced bananas, a pile of vanilla bean pastry cream, then whipped cream and chocolate shavings equals a mouthful of YUM!
]]>You can download a copy of the hand-out I created for the attendees and well as two other MUST HAVE pieces from other presenters.
]]>In New York, you can certainly pay someone to take you on a food tour, but doing it yourself gives you much more freedom, flexibility and since you’re not paying for the tour you get to spend more money on FOOD.
Here’s some tips to help you put together an enjoyable food tour in the Big Apple or whatever city you’re in.
]]>Then I thought that there was no reason to take the easy way out since I was not making anything else. So I offered to make real blintzes and she did not roll her eyes, so it was all good.
]]>For Sunday’s brunch swap I made Salted Cinnamon Browned Butter Caramels.
There’s also a pot luck, for which I believe I invented a new dish: the Deviled Egg Egg
]]>It ain’t likely… So why even try? Fat Buddhas are considered to be very good luck! So let’s get lucky!
]]>I decided that the sugar in the plantains and smoky goodness of the bacon would be DELISH with a spicy dipping sauce. I love the salty, garlic in oil condiment that is served in Latino restaurants would be a good place to start, but maybe too over-the-top for my guests. The lime and chilies and cilantro temper the garlic.
My guests flipped for these! YUM! YUM! YUM!
]]>I put “10 hard unripe kiwifruit” on the shopping list when I sent my boyfriend to the store. Mistake! What I got was 10 very ripe kiwi-fruit and the excuse, “That was all they had.” You can only make pickles with unripe fruit so I went back to another store and got them and made the pickles.
What to do with the very ripe kiwifruit?
]]>This post is out of order chronologically due to editing issues and holiday mayhem. Also, it was the first time I used my new Kodak zi8 camera so some of the photos reflect that.
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