Tag: pomegranate

Weekend Finds 3:1:14: Kitchen Art

I’ve made a decision. Sometimes, when my weekend finds have a theme, I will title them as such. Isn’t that sensible? I thought, hm, maybe I could collect all the cool kitchen art and share it with readers all at once, so that if they’re looking for kitchen art, they can look at one post? Or perhaps if they’re looking for some fun wooden spoons, all of those are in one place? Or perhaps, if there are some kitchens I’m lusting to cook in, I can show them all to you at once? I’m not saying all of my weekend finds from here on out will have a theme. But when the time is right, they might. I hope that’s alright. This week, as I mentioned, I’m obsessed with kitchen art.

1. Radicchio Vegetable Print

Kitchen Art: Radicchio Print // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Radicchio print, found on Design*Sponge.

I really like a lot of prints from this shop on Etsy, but I love love love this radicchio print. I discovered it via Design*Sponge, and keep plotting a way I can have it, and where I can put it.

2. Sugarboo Postcards

Kitchen Art: Radish postcard from Sugarboo // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
“You’re so rad(ish)”

I really like postcards, and I have always thought it would be fun to get postcards separately framed and hang a grid of them on a large-ish wall. I think some of these food and friend related ones from Sugarboo are so sweet. My favorite has to be the radish postcard pictured above.

3. Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off

Kitchen Art: "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off" print // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Tomato, tom-ah-to, potato, pot-ah-to…

Yes, that’s the name of this print from Society 6. Yes, I’ve been pining after this print for years. It combines old music (remember how much I’ve mentioned my Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong Pandora station?) and food, and I just think it’s so sweet. I would hang it anywhere, but feel it would be perfect in a kitchen.

4. Illustrated Recipes from Felicita Sala

Kitchen Art: Illustrated Recipe for Banana Bread // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
These illustrated recipes are so sweet.

I think these illustrated recipes are so sweet. I’d love to have one on my wall – I love the mixture of text and drawings. The best part: it’s functional too!

5. Cutting Boards

Kitchen Art: Cutting boards! // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
There are almost too many options when it comes to beautiful cutting boards.

Not all your kitchen art has to bed 2D. Speaking of functional decorations, there are some beautiful cutting boards out there – some vintage like this one, some modern like these. Maybe these state shaped cutting boards are more your style. Or these chevron ones. Just make sure, if you’re going to try something heavy, that you secure it safely to the wall with a nice sturdy hook or nail. Most of these have holes or straps, or I’m sure they could be easily added.

6. Prints from your favorite blog/cookbook

Kitchen Art: Smitten Kitchen Photographs // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
I love this pomegranate photo from Smitten Kitchen.

You might be surprised to find that some of your favorite blogs might be selling their prints, or if they aren’t already, they might be willing to if you contact them and ask them reeeeaaaally nicely. For example, love Smitten Kitchen’s photos? You can find some for sale here.

Weekend Finds 12:15:13

It’s time for weekend finds!

1. Chefs Feed

Chefs Feed // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
The Chefs Feed homepage

My latest neat food-oriented website discovery is Chefs Feed, a website where you can look up chef recommended dishes, restaurants, and chefs in your town. Who better to trust than these experts themselves?

2. Winter Fruit Whiskey Mash

Winter Fruit Whiskey Mash from A Beautiful Mess // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Winter Fruit Whiskey Mash from A Beautiful Mess

This winter drink looks delicious. If I were in a rush, I would probably skip the persimmon simple syrup (though I think I need to give persimmons another try), and head straight for the muddled orange and pomegranate.

3. Reclaiming Provincial

Reclaiming Provincial // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Reclaiming Provincial

I found this blog through another blog (now I can’t remember which one), and I’m pretty happy about the discovery. With recipes like smoky cardamom ginger-molasses cookies and crispy sweet potato roast with herbed coconut creme fraiche, they seem unique, interesting, and the photos are beautiful.

4. Easy roasted chicken

Chicken Legs inspired by FoodSwoon // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Chicken Legs inspired by FoodSwoon

The other day Jonah and I bought some whole bone in, skin on chicken legs, and it was my job to figure out what to do with them. After some research, I based my creation on this recipe from FoodSwoon, except instead of doing either garlic or herbs or butter, I did all three. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Peel a few garlic cloves and cut each one into a few pieces, and pick a  few herb leaves (I used sage). Peel back the chicken skin and place the sage and garlic underneath (I did probably 3 cloves and 6 sage leaves per leg), then tightly and carefully re-wrap the skin. Rub each leg with half a teaspoon of butter, and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 45-55 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. (Also, FoodSwoon looks like it will quickly become a recipe resource for me.)

5. Mulled Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mulled Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from London Bakes // Serious Crust by Annie Fassler
Mulled Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from London Bakes

I went out for drinks and a white elephant gift exchange with some former co-workers the other night, and the place we went had some mulled wine, which I promptly ordered. When they asked what I got, and I said “mulled wine!” with all the enthusiasm that one ought to have when you say that phrase, all I received in return were blank stares. THEY HAD NEVER HEARD OF MULLED WINE. I was sad for them. We’ve made mulled wine and cider a couple times this year, and I can’t get over how much I love mulling spices in anything. So this recipe for chocolate chip cookies with mulled brown butter from London Bakes seems pretty decadent and incredibly perfect. I love the idea of using orange chocolate for the chips as well, just to tie everything together. (Also, the inspiration recipe from Top with Cinnamon also sounds wonderful.)

Eggplant with Buttermilk Sauce

Pomegranate seeds for the Eggplant with buttermilk sauce

Eggplant with buttermilk sauce

Eggplant with buttermilk sauce

The posting of the recipe is long overdue, as I made this dish quite a while ago.  So I may not remember the exact details of everything I did to make this – but here goes.  Have I told you about the unprecedented influx of cookbooks in Annie and I’s apartment?  I went from owning exactly zero cookbooks before Christmas and my birthday this year (Jan 6) to having 4.  That’s a 400% increase in cookbooks within the span of a month!  Anyway, Annie’s mom got me this great cookbook called Plenty, that has some fantastically new and different recipes. This is one of them.

A picture of this eggplant with buttermilk sauce recipe is on the cover of the Plenty cookbook, so I decided to make it.  It looked like nothing I had ever tasted before, and that’s what it ended up tasting like!

Eggplant with Buttermilk Sauce

Ingredients

2 eggplants
1/2 cup olive oil
4-6 thyme sprigs
salt and pepper
1 pomegranate (this is the fun part)
For the sauce:
9 Tbs buttermilk
1/2 cup Greek yogurt
1.5 Tbs olive oil
1 small garlic clove, finely chopped
pinch of salt

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise (see photo below). Now cut some lengthwise incisions on each half, but not all the way through to the skin. This is just to let the oil and juices get around. Make some more diagonal incisions (I sort of did this like you would cut an avocado before you scoop the flesh out).

Place the eggplant halves on a baking sheet, and brush them with the 1/2 cup olive oil until it’s all used up.  Sprinkle with some thyme leaves and salt and pepper.  Roast for 45 minutes, when the eggplant flesh should be soft and browned.

While the eggplant is roasting away, let’s do something fun. To get all the seeds out without digging through the fruit like a raccoon, start by cutting the pomegranate in half.  Hold one half over a bowl with the flesh side facing down into your hand (watch out, your fingers are about to get juicy). Use the back of a wooden spoon and start whacking the back of the pomegranate gently, and then with increased force, until the seeds start to fall out into the bowl.  Don’t lose faith if seeds don’t start raining down right away: it takes a minute for them to start getting loose. It helps to flip the pomegranate half over once in a while to gently pull the membranes apart and pick them out. Do the same thing with the other half.

Make the sauce by whisking all of the sauce ingredients together in a small bowl.  I used Greek yogurt that was honey-flavored, which may have been a mistake.

When the eggplant halves are done, serve by spooning plenty of the sauce over the halves.  Sprinkle your expertly-harvested pomegranate seeds on top and garnish with some more thyme and drizzle with a bit of olive oil.

The taste was amazing – a combination of things I have never tasted in combination before!