The Best of 2009: Personal Food Photography Favorites.

I think when I look back, the whole reason that I started food blogging was because I was taking all of these food pictures, and I was only showing them to the same 3 or 4 people. I've loved my kitchen for quite a few years, but only somewhat recently entered the digital age of photography. I like to think that I know what's going on with technology, but yet really, I'm in the dark ages. Until I got married, I never even had a computer in my home, and most people were surprised at how many computer-related things I knew for really not being all that interested in them.

A few months ago, we had to invest in a terabyte of extra storage, since I was taking thousands of photos in super high resolution. It seems ironic that food photos were eating up tons of space. I've since started shooting in smaller formats, but still have a day or so in the future I must devote to paring down the digital clutter. Digital clutter, it seems to me, is much worse than the physical type, since you don't see it and it overwhelms your computer before you know it. More than once everything has frozen up due to space issues, and I've frantically had to transfer things over and cross my fingers that I wasn't loosing anything.

That said, I've dug into the external hard drive storage to unearth some of my favorite food photos from each month of 2009. Since I started blogging in April, I have quite an online collection of photos both here and on flickr. The ones below are of die hard obsessions, and are compositions that appealed to me, if not to the larger photographic community.

Off we go:
JANUARY


Granola from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Granola is absolutely an obsession with me, and its one that appears to have no waning in sight as we enter a new decade. Of the many varieties that I've tried and tweaked and eaten (I can not imagine the pounds of rolled oats I've eaten this year...) this one is still one of my most favorite. In fact, I made a batch today, in spite of the lack of freezer space. In addition to being obsessed with granola, I am obsessed with frozen granola. I love it mixed in with day-old oatmeal, sprinkled on top of a Wheatabix biscuit, sprinkled on ice cream or poured directly into my mouth from a ramekin. You really must try it.

FEBRUARY

Dorie Greenspan's Cupcake.

Yes, it is the same as the banner cupcake above. I made them for a Super Bowl party, which is ironic since the thing I love most in the culinary world is chocolate cake, and the thing I hate most would have to be football. I forgot that I took quite a few different shots of this ganache topped beauty, and I like how it appears that I was shooting in a glamorous white facility somewhere and not on my sunlit dining room table. I'm pretty sure I ate a lot of them myself, and like I've said before, it is truly a miracle I am able to maintain my current weight.

MARCH


Nigella Lawson's Chocolate Granola.

I went through a DVRing craze of watching Nigella on Food Network near the end of last winter. While I can't say I've watched much Food TV lately, I guess when the holidays are over and the rush of January is gone, and the whole of winter and snow seems to be beating me into couch potato-ing submission, I do catch up on DVR'd obsessions. As I recall, I was also watching all of the Jamie Oliver's I had recorded as well - so I must have been feeling rather British at the time.

This granola is so different than any of the others I've tried, and has the benefit of being the recipe to introduce me to brown rice syrup, which is seriously one of my favorite things. It's so good and not so sweet, and has the best crunch of any I've tried.

APRIL

Eggs.

I started the blog this month, and it was just a couple weeks after unexpectedly loosing one of my uncles, who was quite young. I think a great silence fell over me, since though I was far away from him, I remembered him so well from when I was small - and my brother and I were regularly (and gladly) tormented by all of my Mom's brothers (she had 4!). He had such a natural ability to be funny. Not just funny - an incredible wit that goes unmatched to anyone I've ever met. I like to think that the Northwoods are missing the laughter that he brought to everyone who knew him.

Eggs will forever remind me of this, and for a good reason. They do embody the necessity and the circle of life. It seems like a cruel truth, until closer observation. There is such joy to be found in every part. God has given us this set clock to which all of us are bound, and there is no escaping it. Whatever you believe, "When the game is over, all the pieces go back into the same box" as a fortune cookie I had once said.

While it seems like a strange way of coping with something so unexpected, eggs for a week in April did help me, though I felt in no way able to help my family as much as I would have liked to.
MAY

Alton's English Muffins.

My boys went to Chicago, and I stayed behind to catch up on knitting and being alone. Of course, this found time led me to do some rare shopping and I bought some egg rings. (Read more about it here.) It took me three tries to get them to turn out properly, but they were very tasty and ready for their photo op...

JUNE

Black Beans.

I think this is just a random picture from one dinner one night back in June... before I was aware that I would be obsessed with Rancho Gordo, I'm sure these were just regular Non-Gordo's. I am always amazed at the agriculture in our country, and that even if you are short on cash, you can step into any supermarket and buy a pound of beans for about $ .99. These were mostlikely from the bulk bin at my food co-op, so they may have cost slightly more.

I took this related picture in November (with a Rancho Gordo variety), and one of my favorite flickr contacts left the nicest comments aboutthe respect due a black bean... you'll have to click over and read it.

JULY

Mango Salsa.

My first post back in April was about mangoes and mango salsa. I think I ate mango salsa or a mango crisp for so long that the last time I bought one I made it into salsa and then couldn't even eat it! This never happens to me very often, but I think a new category has emerged: Foods I'm Tired Of. They still are amazing, and I wouldn't want to offend any mangoes who happen to be reading this. I'm pretty sure it's just a phase, and maybe by next June, I'll be ready to devour them once again.

AUGUST


Apples.

In a Saveur article from this fall, I read about a "real life Johnny Appleseed". I never gave so much thought to the "American-ness" of apples before reading this article, and having it explain how there are so many unique American varieties due to the unique way that apple trees are propagated. I think that each tree must then taste unique to itself, since that is why this sauce is the exact taste that comes to mind when I think of applesauce, since I've been eating it pretty much since birth.

The applesauce I made above was from my Gram's tree in Northern Wisconsin. I don't know the variety, but it is sweet and tart. I didn't add any sugar to it at all - and if you'd ask the Boy-O, I know he'd agree that it is plenty sweet. I had a great time being a whole season canner this summer, and looking back at all of the photos I have of my processing, reminds me of this everyday miracle of food preservation.
SEPTEMBER


I am indeed still looking for someone to eat beets with, since this batch of fine looking noodles is still snuggled in the frozen depths of my deep freeze... I just haven't had the occasion to serve them. I may just have to invite a new food blogger friend over to indulge with me...

OCTOBER

Tostadas de Salmon Ahumado and Rancho Gordo Christmas Limas.

Mostly Foodstuff's Majestic and Moist Honeycake

There are three photos for October, since I couldn't choose. GOP turned my eye to the amazing Rancho Gordo in October, and I am forever grateful. Sometimes, there is this thing called "perceived value" which can be an inflated idea of greatness that you inflict on something you really want to be wonderful.

But, dear reader, Rancho Gordo is not included in this definition.The day I placed my first order, I made the delicious smoked salmon tostadas, and the first cooking experience with said beans was this amazing Christmas Lima. They were so good, and only improved with refrigerated residence. I have the other half pound from this batch, and am going to have to make the same meal again.

And as for the cake, well this cake, is the cake of all cakes... at least for a cake lover such as myself. It is so wonderful, and only more complemented by Deena's post about it. I'll say no more, you must try it for yourself. Just look at it gleaming there, you know you need to turn on the oven and brew yourself a pot of coffee...

NOVEMBER

Turkey Sandwich with Spicy Dilly Beans.

This was a great use of the little bit of leftover smoked Thanksgiving turkey. These dilly beans are going to be a staple at my house from now on. I could easily eat as many of them as an actual side of vegetable instead of the one of a pickle that it actually is. It's spicy, and dilly: It's Foodinjars Spicy Dilly Beans! And by all means add that extra cayenne pepper.

DECEMBER

I come from a teetotaling family, so the making of homemade hooch wasn't exactly the first thing that came to mind when I was completely obsessed with tart cherries this last July. Curiosity, however, is the mother of experimentation over here at Casa RCakewalk...

I poured a tiny little cordial cup the other day to see how it was coming along, since the recipe I used suggested letting it rest for several months. It's very sweet, I'll say that, but it's also very cherry. I'm for sure going to have to make a black forest type ice cream, I know this much. It also, strangely, didn't seem overtly strong - but I think the sugar was fooling me. At any rate, it made a very nice picture for the end of the year.

So, at year end, thank you to my small handful of loyal readers that inspire me to continue taking photos and ruminating on life (usually as it pertains to the kitchen) around my house. I've had more fun doing this than I ever thought, and I've met some interesting people who are amazing canners, cooks and bakers! It does seem like the year has evaporated on me once again, and sometimes I wish I could just put the lid on it to slow the process. But then I remember the eggs, and realize that it is all a part of the plan,and that each of these 3 grey hairs I recently noticed are par for the course.

Happy New Year!!!

A Gingerbread House: December 09 Daring Baker Challenge

The December 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was brought to you by Anna of Very Small Anna and Y of Lemonpi. They chose to challenge Daring Bakers’ everywhere to bake and assemble a gingerbread house from scratch. They chose recipes from Good Housekeeping and from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book as the challenge recipes.

I didn't procrastinate this month's challenge as much as I thought I would. Even though I was excited to try my creative hand at decorating a gingerbread house, and even with dreams of Hansel and Gretel-ish ideas populating my brain, I have never been overly excited at the idea of creating a gingerbread house. Usually, they look like things that I would never want to eat... and isn't that my whole point of baking? I decided that since it could turn out to be a "decoration" instead of sugary sustenance, I was going to do my best to be excited.


I'm doing things differently this month, and putting the end result picture first!

The only problem, was that the day I started my baking and decoration endeavor, my son was overtired and was being, what some parents like to say, "Difficult". The day before the baking began, I searched for patterns on the Internet, and settled on a very small house. Since I have never tried making such a concoction before, I figured smaller was better. I found this picture, and imagined myself making a whole tiny village of decorated on the inside gingerbread homes.


Reality set in, however, and I settled on a windowless house that was based on a 3 inch square: as seen below.


I kind of scared myself by reading the thread of comments concerning the gingerbread dough. Many people found it difficult to work with and much too dry. I settled on the Lemonpi recipe taken from The Great Scandinavian Baking Book, thinking that then this gingerbread would be something I'd love to eat. I think I cut back the amount of cloves slightly, (it called for a whopping 3 teaspoons!). I actually found that the dough wasn't too dry, and I could have rolled it without refrigeration right away. I think it was harder to roll because I left it in the icebox for 48 hours before I actually got around to rolling it out. I cut it into quarters, and bashed it with the rolling pin several, hard times before it succumbed to my wishes of a somewhat rectangular shape.

At this point, I momentarily lost sight of my decoration goals, and was upset that the dough did not knock my socks off. It seemed ok, but a little bland - not something I was too excited about. When I think of gingerbread I want to eat, I think of a fat, slightly chewy, gingerbread man that will run away out of my oven shouting "Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't catch me - I'm the Gingerbread Man!!!" at the top of his pudgy little lungs. Yes, overly spiced, cream cheese frosted, man-eating bliss.


I cut the pieces, and baked them, still unenthralled with the taste of this Scandinavian Baking Book delight. I rolled and cut about 4 houses, which was about as many as a whiny, overtired Boy-O would allow, and then cut a couple of extra sheets of holly, trees, shooting stars and the like.

Then, I began to build. I forgot a cardinal rule of 3-D construction - the walls have WIDTH! How could I forget something so silly? I was a whiz at non-CAD drafting in highschool, and though I now could not probably make a 3 view drawing of a cog wheel (by hand, with only my drafting arm as aid...) at one time I could. I started building and gluing with royal icing and the roof was much too short. One thing highschool drafting did not drill into my head, it appears, is that one of the three views is most certainly a width. I remedied (or so I thought) the problem by "gluing" together my holly to approximate a roof-like structure. As you can see, it wasn't going so well:


I set this one aside, and decided on starting over and putting the walls on the outside instead of the inside.

So far, so good. I made sure to use a lot of that royal icing on the inside, and really glued it well. I'm impatient, and have a still-whining Boy-O to attend to. I need a bath, and some sleep. So, obviously, I didn't take the time to let the walls set up too much before continuing.

It turned out so much better than I thought! I started feeling a bit happier, and more like a happy Gretel wanting to sink my teeth into the walls of my home.

I figured, since I had royal icing left over, I had to do something with my poor first attempt. So after my photo-op was complete, I attended to my sorry-looking, leaky roofed structure. That royal icing really is amazing stuff, and I do live in a snow region and was not trying to complete a Gingerbread Alamo like Homesick Texan. Snow, is seems, is my answer!

I loaded her up with gluttonous amounts of icing. The next morning, that structure was so strong I could have dropped it out of the window and it would have survived. I was able to take it and move it without fear of crumbling.

I actually like how it turned out. It looks homemade and childish, and like some thing I'd want to eat since there isn't a metric ton of candy attached to it.

I was even more excited to add it to my china cabinet:

where it blended in nicely, and didn't at all look as if it was a second place to my showpiece...except that I put it in the back corner.

This was another fun challenge, and another thing I never thought I'd actually make. My Mom has asked me, "Why do you do this? It's just so much stress." Sometimes, that's true. And more often than not, these tests of my baking prowess are much heavier in calories and fat than I normally go for. But I have to say that I must agree to the quote I recently read "A gourmet who thinks of calories is like a tart who looks at her watch. " — James Beard .

And, I'd like to add, nothing could be more true than my own mantra: "Everything in Moderation".

Tamales: Still a Work in Progress.

I'll admit that I really wasn't looking forward to making these this year. Not only do I tend to be messy in the kitchen sometimes, but this is tedious cooking. You can't obsessively check the iPod for email every five minutes or run after a 3 year old that decides to stick his tiny fingers into an oversized bell Christmas ornament only to get it stuck. I did the bulk of the work yesterday, so today I just had to assemble. I'm proud to say that I now have about 30 tamales, and that my kitchen is not a complete disaster area. I maintained a clean work space!

I used a Rick Bayless recipe for the filling. Basically, a sauce of Guajillo chiles, garlic and a few spices, pureed, strained and added with water to cubed pork shoulder. Rick has you simmer the open pot for about an hour, and then you are supposed to shred the meat with forks. Since I could not be bothered with that, I (*gasp*) employed my immersion blender. I actually did this last year on a whim after I was making a complete mess of things, and it worked so well I intentionally did it yesterday. It leaves you with a nice texture and uniformity that forks can not duplicate. If you are looking for a more rustic tamal, I wouldn't try it though.

My work area, above, is as clean at the start as at the end of my endeavor. It helped that I completely cleared my counter of flours and the KitchenAid. I appreciate minimalism, but it just is something I can not employ myself - especially in my kitchen.

The tamales were wrapped and in the steamer by 10:30! I was feeling so accomplished, but then I realized that the last times I've made tamales alone I made more than twice as many, was not as organized and was rushed by attending to a much younger Boy-O. Relatively speaking, this was a snap!

They did steam ALL day. This is one thing that I don't understand, Mr. Bayless. Every single tamal recipe I've ever seen says to steam them for about an hour to an hour and a half. At 4 p.m. today, I finally shut off the burner and called it a day. My house was a sauna, the heat hadn't run all day - even with the door cracked in the kitchen - and the little guys still felt a little soft in the centers. From past experiences, I find if I just cease and pop the whole steamer into the fridge overnight and start again the next day, it is just fine. Sometimes they even seem to firm up in the cold and don't have to steam as long.

Since so much of the day was monitoring, I was able to complete the Sparkling Cranberries that I started yesterday when I was talking to my Mom on the phone. I didn't think I'd get time to try this recipe from 101 Cookbooks before Christmas hit, but I'm glad I had a few extra minutes to do it. It really is simple, just soak 2 cups of cranberries in a simple syrup of 2 c. sugar to 2 c. water overnight, and then toss with coarse and granulated sugar.

The only thing that I would add, is to save the drained simple syrup! One of my most favorite things is to shake the juice of half a lime, a 1/16 of of t. of stevia powder, ice to fill and water to top off in my little "serves one" cocktail shaker to make Limeade. The pretty pink syrup stood in nicely for the more virtuous stevia today, and imbued my drink the loveliest shade of pink. The cranberries themselves are completely addicting as well. They are tart and sweet and pop and crunch upon contact with your teeth.

After a day spent steaming and working on that Rancho Gordo soup, I'm ready to go. But now I fear an impending snowstorm and a dreaded Winter Weather Advisory is going to prevent us from going 3 hours into the west to the home of my Parents on Wednesday afternoon. I never encountered this phenomenon of not making it home for Christmas until 3 years ago, when it was a sad surprise that we were snowboundedly staying put. I am ever thankful for my boys, but was so upset. That year, we couldn't all get together again until February.

There is this little pang in the pit of my heart even now that these Weatherpeople are actually telling the truth and I will yet again not make it home for Christmas. If this is indeed the case, I'm going to have to invite someones for supper on Christmas Eve! I'm still hopeful that it will all be in error, and that our Big Mexican Dinner will be enjoyed Christmas Eve as usual. Otherwise I may not have to cook until the New Year.

Economy Spread (and Cookieposter, part III).

Last Friday, I took time to rummage through the basement of one of my favorite antiques stores. That floor in the building specializes in mid-century art and antiques, and has several book sellers. I have a weakness for old cookbooks, especially the free-with-appliance and local electric company types, even though I try to exercise caution lest my house be uncontrollably filled with paper clutter.

I limited my purchase to two: The New Waring Blendor Serves Everyone (yes, blender is spelled blendor), and Foods Children Love.

the new waring blender serves everyone

When I was paging through the recipes for "Vitamin-Full Appetizers" and "Main Course, Tube Feedings" that purport to be "useful in feeding convalescents and the aged", I ran across a heading called Bread Spreads.

When I was a kid, my Mom would grind ring bologna together with her home-canned dill pickles in an old-fashioned steel meat grinder that attached to the counter top. It was one of my favorite things; we called it Ground Pickle and Bologna. It was mixed with a healthy amount of Miracle Whip, and we happily ate it up. I still love this, though in my adult life, I've noticed that wherever I've happened to see it, it's called Ham Salad. In the health conscious 90's, I think my Mom probably switched to using ham, though I would have to ask her the last time she made it.

I never guessed that it must have been born of the frugality of depression era parents until I saw the recipe posted in the Waring Blendor cookbook as Economy Spread. In this recipe, you would use 1/2 cup of mayonnaise to 1 cup your meat of choice and simply use your Waring blendor to blend it.

After I made another loaf of American White Sandwich bread this morning, I knew I'd have to whip up a batch of the purposefully named Economy Spread. I prefer to coarsely chop the pickles and ham by hand, and only add enough mayonnaise to help it stick together. I'm imagining that homemade mayonnaise would make this dinner party worthy, but maybe only as canape style appetizers. Sasa, please leave a comment and let any interested readers know about your version, in which she adds sour cream instead of mayonnaise.

Of course, I was so excited at the prospect of eating this on the fresh heel of the bread that I forgot to photograph it until I was almost finished. It may be a recipe born of unusual necessity, but it certainly is one of my favorites.

COOKIEPOSTER, part III

Ruggulach, a recipe from Mostly Foodstuffs. I love other's family recipes, and this one from Deena's family was really good. I actually bought some Apricot jam, since that wasn't in my canning calendar this year. I'm planning to remedy that next year. I did make half with the Apricot jam and half with a Strawberry-Cointreau jam that I made last summer. They look so elegant and fussy, even though they are pretty easy to make. The only addition I could see fit to make would be to add a pinch of salt to the dough.

Almond-Orange Biscotti. I have always been jealous of Elisa, since every year she makes amazing biscotti as gifts. Of the last 3 years, this batch pictured above, is the first recipe I've made that I would be proud to send her. It is properly biscotti: crunchy, but not tooth-breaking, and has enough butter to give it some body. Orange peel, almonds and almond extract are the additions that really make this one of my favorites for 2009. This was another Cook's Illustrated recipe. It can be found in The Best Recipe, one of my most consulted resources.

I have a busy end of the week now, with some cooking and baking scheduled for others and even a Christmas party in the mix. I have my oven on self clean as I type, so it can be properly prepared for the work it will be allotted. And I have got to make time to get to el Rey, those tamales can not make themselves and I need chiles and hojas! If it is one thing I'm guilty of, it is careful planning. Tamale building will begin on Monday, and I hope to complete the last of my Mexican cookery tasks by Wednesday.

It's hard to believe we're staring down the barrel of the end of the year. So often I hear my Mom's voice telling me long ago that in her 30's, the years came in clumps. I can identify with that now, whereas I couldn't quite grasp it when she first told me. Each day is so packed with activity, and each one slips away faster than the last. What powerful reminders to enjoy each second when you have it, and to appreciate each of those around you every day.