When Life Gives you Lemons you Make Marmalade

   

Here are some more food blogs written by chefs who have published

 rangette.blogspot.com   this writer is a chef who has published a book called Delancey.  Now a lot of chefs have pictures of the food and the craft but I like seeing the actual hands used in making the dough and rolling it out and such and her blog does an excellent job of that including little baby kids helping out in the process. Now why do I say Baby Kids?  Well I like adding the word baby to any nickname of sorts to make it seem cute for instance: my baby cat, my boodoh baby, my chocolate yummy baby.

Here's another one www.thenaptimechef.com What a great name for a blog! A picture of a chef taking a nap before taking on the daunting task of cooking comes to mind. Here's a new expression she writes When Life gives you lemons you make marmalade.  Of course her blog has to be called The Naptime Chef.   What can I expect if I buy her book? Well its a how-to guide on Fitting Great Food into Family Life.  One of the greatest pictures on her blog has to be freezer friendly spaghetti.  Another of her recipes that are freezer friendly is  Not Just for the Kentucky Derby Chocolate-Pecan Pie {Powernap} This caught my attention just because the other day my nephew was trying to describe for me Kentucky Derby in his game of Taboo(a word game)

Homemade Desserts and Butter Pudding

   

Here is a dangerous website to visit if you are hungry in the morning like I am.  This is an expat blog writing in Poland happiness-is-homemade.com/tag/breakfast/ I love this blog because its just jam packed with polish food pictures and hash tags to get you roaming around the blog.  Pictures like Savoury bread and butter pudding (Chleb zapiekany w jajku)  and Avocado & goat cheese sandwich / Kanapka z awokado i kozim serem.  I love the polish names for all the food she displays, it just rips of your tongue and makes you want to eat more.

Here's another blog if you are a big foodie, like I am www.davidlebovitz.com/  I wrote a blog post about David's popular book a while back and it became one of my most popular post so I was just as surprised to find that he has a blog on his famous French cuisine.  David Lebovitz is always writing about the comparison between American's and the French which I like because he's so funny and his comparisons are always right on.  This is what he writes in a post about desserts.  Americans bake to relax or as a hobby – in France, it’s something you do because, well…you need a dessert. They don’t make a big fuss about it or are all that concerned about appearances. I think people know they can’t compete with the professional pastry shop on the corner, so they’re just content to make what they feel will be fine for their guests.

My Main Objective: Blog Search

   


I've decided to review one expat blog, plus a food writing blog.  Now its quite a combination to look for blogs in the early morning, lets say Five am but the newest place that I look for food writing blogs make it easy at www.saveur.com  And than expatsblog.com

1.www.smittenkitchen.com This blog jumped at me because it rhymes and I love poems and rhyming. The chef behind this blog is Deb Perelman who writes a book called The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook.  I love this post on  Spaghetti with Chickpeas .  What an amazing combination! Its best suited to eat right before you're ready to run a marathon.  I like Perelman's overhead shots of her recipes and ingredients.  She must have an overhead drone above her while she's cooking or else a very large stool.





2.tikichris.com/ is an expat blog from London.  Now if you know anything about London you know that it has very Chic businesses.  Chris has a post called London Daily Photo: High Street and it features a post on what I presume to be clothing store with a black manikin in a white slim fitting dress.  What I love about London is that they got all these old school shops juxtaposed with neat organized merchandise.

Buttermilk Butter Berry Crumb Cake

Its hard to find blogs that really strike you but I think I found one today
www.mowielicious.com/ .  This blog is really the most elaborate, most detailed, most gorgeous dessert baking blog I came across today.  Mowie Kay, the writer, out does himself with huge handmade food houses made out of cashews, walnuts and dried fruits, as well as coffee cakes and loafs of bread.  Mowie Kay is a travel photographer which obviously adds to his delightful food writing posts.  His posts are published in magazines across London and beyond and you can tell why: shimmering gold touches are added to platters and spreads.  Colorful holiday backgrounds to add to the setting he's trying to establish in her pictures.


www.sproutedkitchen.com, I like this blog because along with the beautiful pictures of sprouts and beat salad recipes are long, extensive stories that describe the writer's life outside of just cooking.  I walk away feeling like I'm with the writer, Sara Forte,  on her journey to and fro her relative's homes, to her favorite shops to buy the food for her famous recipes, to get-togethers with her friends, and thinking about her loved one's who are sick.  Here is a recipe called Buttermilk Butter Berry Crumb Cake

Down the Twirly, Swirly List of Decadent Recipes.

Down the twirly, swirly list of decadent recipes.

http://www.cakespy.com/  by Jessie Oleson Moore writes a very cute site, the writer finds herself to be a detective seeking sweetness in everyday life.  She puts little cartoon smiley faces on most of her  desserts giving real emotion to your favorite dessert.  Here are the surprises that I found today and desserts I never heard of: and a few that I may or may not ever try including chocolate avocado pie, mini coconut pancakes, breakfast nainamo bars. 

www.wednesdaychef.typepad.com  Here is a great dessert blog by Luisa Weiss.  Much of Weiss desserts are from Berlin and one dessert recipe is called Yotam Ottolenghi's Raspberry Meringue Roulade dessert. Luisa also has desserts recipes like Dimply Plum cake and Better Than Robert Redford.  I love the fact that she includes the Robert Redford dessert because I have written many stories on the beloved cake including My Momma Makes it Better documenting my experiences with the cake. I guess its more than the name of the cake that attracts me.  There is also a Ukrainian Honey Cake recipe on her site as well.  Overall the blog is very nice.   I love how the writer decides she's going to go about the art of baking  I've been struck by the baking bug that shows up so reliably each year when the sticky, swollen days of summer come.

Hannah Hung, Food Writer

Hannah Hung, a food writer writes on average 3-4 restaurant reviews a day with a total accumulated 1,373 restaurant reviews last year alone!  Her reviews are posted on yelp.com and here's a comment that she wrote on Nando's Peri-Peri restaurant We decided to dine-in (loved the colorful decor, with the cyan-ish lampshades and the awesome art pieces on the wall). All of her posts are at least 300 words long which puts most food writers to shame. Check her out at Hannah Hung  

      

America's Best Pancakes and Cupcakes

     


At a time of the year when I want to take the stress off of moving, I turn to the best pancake and cupcake blogs. 


http://coleensrecipes.blogspot.com/2011/06/best-pancakes-ever.html- This writer has a great peanut butter cake recipe and the biggest pancakes I've ever seen.


http://www.jimspancakes.com/ a blog on the art of making great pancakes.


http://thefrostedcupcakes.blogspot.com/ great cupcake blog, also has an easy recipe for making great frosting for Georgetown Cupcakes Salted Caramel Cupcakes.

France's Secret Culinary Tour

   

I'm reviewing some of the top French food critic blogs today. 

www.alexanderlobrano.com Alexander Lobrano, the food criticgives the restaurants he visits,School Grade reviews, on each his blog posts. First he'll give the overall look of the restaurant with his blog pictures,then the food, then the people so you can feel like your sitting next to Lobrano as he's ready to enjoy a great night of food.  Then he slaps the restaurant a fantastic or NOT-so-fantastic restaurant review.  

I love the title of one of Lobano's posts and more importantly the end of the post Unesco's big mistake.  GARNIER–My Favorite Plateau de Fruits de Mer, A-; LE BISTRAL, B+, Very Good Cuisine du Marche; and UNESCO’s Big Mistake 

You could totally tell that the restaurant was great but they could not surpass the final grade of the this food critic.

http://www.ediblegeography.com/proustian-greengrocers/  Here's another blog by food critic Nicola Twilley in France who suggests that in Bristol there is a reconstructed 1950s street where residents, many of whom suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia, can mail letters in a George VI Post Box.  He's obviously making fun of the street but at the same time it entices an American, like myself, to want to go there.

Messy Kitchen

      

 

What makes a messy kitchen?  Well,  Culinary Arts College helped me find out.  Listed on this webssite are great Parisian Food Blogs.

 

 

www.doriegreenspan.com  Dorie writes a great Gingerbread baby recipe.This blog obviously explores the Parisian kitchen.  You begin to wander what makes a parisian kitchen, brass cooking pans for one, as is suggested on her cover page. 

 

 

www.bakeinparis.blogspot.com Kris writes a blog all about Parisian food and he has layered cakes as well as lemon cheese cake with caramelized cumquats, and orange tian, (of course french Tiramisu), chocolate and passion fruit lamingtons, caramel cake with caramelized butter frosting and Dobos Torta.There's something about layered cakes that I love. I don't care what's in between the layers as long as it isn't a surprise like some cakes that hide the flavoring right in the middle so that you don't know what your getting into by the time you get there.  Like a big gush of blueberry in the middle of a cake, no thanks!

 

 

 

 

Endangered Features:The Art of Baking from Scratch

After seeing the early emerging signs of the chocolate holiday ahead aka Valentine's day.  I wanted to do some research on the best chocolate blogs and see what makes chocolate blogs unique.

www.lakechamplainchocolates.com  I congratulate this business blog by Lake Champlain Chocolates and a post entitled spread chocolate cheer. 

Don't mind if I do..  I think, gazing out at their beautiful boxes of chocolate and an arrangement  of row upon row of chocolates I never seen before.  I'm like Forest Gump thinking life is like a box of chocolates you never know what your going to get.


http://www.chocablog.com This blog is unique in that it has exactly what I was looking for a chocolate tier dessert.  Now why am I looking for a tier dessert well after watching the movie The Departed there was a scene for which Matt Damon is eating a elegant tier dessert with his co-star Vera Farmiga and I was like I got to see more tier desserts.

 So here is one called chocolate-mille-feuille/ on this blog.  Here is another tier dessert called dalek-chocolate-cake wow very tall, its like the Eiffel tower version of a chocolate cake. 

If those blogs weren't enough for you William Curley has this business website called William Curley Pattisier Chocolatier and it has the most couture chocolates I've ever seen.  Chocolates with big chocolaty ribbons that loom over pastries like big waterfalls.

www.chocolateandzucchini.com This blog by Clotilde is absolutely amazing because it has all kinds of chocolates mixed with other food combinations that you never thought possible.  Coussin-de-lyon/ is a chocolate pillow dessert popular in France.

 It reminds me of desserts that I used to eat long ago at my Grandmother's house. I come from a long line of women who only eat desserts from scratch, (not box cakes and such) so I would love to come back to this blog and learn some more about the art of baking from scratch. 

 I like the fact this blog also has a vertical Paris garden wall.  I've never seen anything like it.  The writer also has a Chocolate-and-pistachio-surprise-cake-recipe

Eat, Drink and be Merry:You May Diet

   

Veggies have made an appearance in my life but like most American dishes they are put as an aside veggies like corn, carrots and broccoli  which have been put on my plate just for the purpose of saying I ate a veggie.  Here are some great blogs that emphasize veggies versus just throwin' them on the plate

www.veggierunners.com has  a veggie feta cheese pizza.  Now I don't eat pork but would l would still like to jazz up my pizza without having to return to the boring plain cheese pizza. 

Europeans love vegetable stock and here's a great soup from Kate Ford's blog  www.thevegspace.wordpress.com called hot and sour mushroom soup .  She also has a recipe for  

Chana Masala.

www.theppk.com This is very approachable vegetarian blog by Chandra.  It has recipe called rice paper roll with red curry peanut sauce- I'm in love with peanuts more than ever after making a peanut and veggie rice dish. Chandra also has a chana-masala   recipe.  Now ever since I've been shopping at the indian market on Central in Minneapolis, I've fallen in love with any form of orange masala and I will get to the bottom of replicating the to-go dishes they have at this Indian market even if it kills me,lol. Here's one last kale recipe .

When Home Feels like a Revolving Door

   


When home feels like a revolving door its nice to be able to explore food that can be made fast online. I like a few  food blogs in particular because their recipes can be made fast.  A lot of food recipes online will say that they are fast but then they require 20-30 ingredients.  I don't think that is fast.  Or they will say they are fast and then require you to use a food processor or blender which takes 15 minutes to clean.  These food blogs don't put you through that work.  Its my belief that when you can learn to cook easy and fast, you can learn to cook exquisite and great meals too.


www.iamafoodblog.com   Stephanie Le writer of this blog has a coconut almond rice krispie recipe and a 15 minute doughnut recipe. Also a two minute chocolate mug cake recipe.  isn't that the coolest thing ever! In two minutes you could be serving yourself a chocolate cake in a glass. These recipes are easy enough even for me!  

http://weelicious.com/ This is another great blog if your in the habit to search for the ingredients you have and work for their in order to throw together a great meal.

 

Big Fat Donut Purveyor

Its hard to find absolutely unique donut ideas because you have to know what your looking for. People don't usually blog about the donuts itself but the donut shops.

www.voodoodoughnut.com they have donuts like triple chocolate penetration donut, neopolitan and Miami vice doughnut.

www.kingarthurflour.com buy your baking merchandise here.  Also has pumpkin donut recipe and cinnamon spice donuts.

Shops in the United States like

Glam dolls (Minnesota)

Blue Star donuts

Donut Bar has crème Brulee donut

Dynamo Donut and Coffee

Donut Vault (Chicago)

Dough(Brooklyn NY)

Gour Doughs (has a big fat donut purveyor)

Italian Asian Pasta

Last week I selfishly went to Leeann Chin's restaurant and decided I needed to do a little Asian food research if I am to ever to become adequate in Asian food cooking.  These are the cooking blogs that I came across online in my research.

www.kyspeaks.com   I like this Malaysian cooking blog because its one of the most visited Asian blogs and also because it has some unique food recipes.  It also has pictures of Malaysia with the  writer Ky, on a motorcycle.  Ky has recipes like Sansai Okowa & Chestnut Steam Rice at Isetan KLCCand seafood I never tried for like prawns, snow crab, and fish head.

www.gourmeted.com Who says that Asians can't rock desserts on this blog is a fabulous German Sunken Apple Cake( AKA Versunkener Apfelkuchen) which I found so unique in appearance.  Its has your basic apple pie look with a weaved lattice pie-top crust but the apples inside are cored, peeled and  placed like an accordion making it look so fabulous.

 

www.steamykitchen.com  I like this blog because showcases a Korean food writer who is a TV chef and cookbook author.   She has a post called Food too Cute to Eat showcasing Sushi Pandas, polar bear in mushroom and cabbage hot tub and Sugar Kitty in a coffee.

www.indiansimmer.com  I found this blog interesting as it explores Indian food and some of the pictures just pop out at you.   Bright all blue kitchen shelves with bright blue cutlery. And fabulous food photography that gives new life to the typical ginger, cinnamon stick and turmeric typical in Indian dishes. ( I should know, I have to cook for a Pakistani individual daily and let me tell you  that cooking with Turmeric is not my favorite thing to do).

Pastry Paris: Everything looks like a Desserts by Susan Hockbaum

 




Reading, Pastry Paris: In Paris, Everything looks like a Dessert, by Susan Hockbaum.

Even though I say I'm reading this marvelously illustrated book of nonfiction.  Its more like I'm devouring the pages.  Hockbaum takes the French desserts and makes them her own comparing desserts like the Religieuse, a paair of cream puffs sitting on top of one another to a a military complex: Les Jnvalides, that houses Napoleon's burial ground.She mentions the following desserts:

French pastries like dolled up eclairs ,gateau caramelmacaron a l'anciennetartframboisier

everest pistachio cakefeuille d automne passionato celiacupcake de vanillesupreme fraisemousse a la menthe