Tag: Organization

Seven Things I Love (10-5-2020): Gastronomical Edition

Okay guys, so I was collecting thing for my upcoming blog post and not only did I have WAY too many but a lot of them seemed to be food related so this week I’m posting two blogs simultaneously. Don’t worry, I don’t think this will be a regular thing.

1. This video showing How they make croissants at the Le Marais Bakery in San Francisco. Mesmerizing. And man, they look so good. Dammit, how much longer until we can freaking travel. Or at least leave our homes? My state unfortunately is becoming a new hotspot. Some hospitals not too far north of where I live have had to start wait-listing or transferring patients. I’m going to go watch this video again….

2. This Black Forest Piecaken – my friend Kathy made this! You’ve probably heard of a turducken, which is a deboned chicken stuffed into a deboned duck, further stuffed into a deboned turkey. Well a piecaken is a pie baked inside a cake. You can make it with pretty much any kind of pie and any kind of cake but this is a cherry pie baked into a fudgy chocolate cake. Only in America!

I’m not sure if this is the same recipe my friend used but the photo is mighty close to the end result so it could be. OR if you don’t want to put as much work into it, you can use this boxed cake recipe but that’s not going to be as good.

3. This pizzeria – Vinnie’s Pizzeria, that has added “Comforting Words” to its menu at the low cost of $1! 2020 has a silver linings here and there.

4. This Australian tradition – “Democracy Sausage” or another reason why the rest of the world is superior to America. Oh em gee, why aren’t we doing this???? Because most countries don’t try to discourage voting/making it difficult to vote and actually try to lure people to the polls, in Australia at many elections they grill these sausages, called “snags” and offer them either for free or to raise money for local causes. I realize during a global pandemic this may not be a good time to start this (and I’m sure they won’t be doing it in Australia for the next year or so either) but we really need to try harder.

5. This Snow Globe Gin from Harvey Nichols – two of my favorite things in one package. Pinch me. They’ve used edible gold flakes for the snow. It’s times like this that I ask myself yet again, why the hell am I not living in the UK? (You can’t see it on their website until November, not that they can ship it to the U.S. Trust me, I’ve tried to have gin shipped here.)

6. These Tips for tidying up your kitchen — I’m obsessed with Food52 and this article had some amazing tips on how to clean up your kitchen quickly and easily. I particularly liked the part for keeping an “orderly fridge.” Genius.

(bonus – before and after (mostly after) photos of junk drawer makeovers…)

7. This article about how the Irish Supreme Court ruled that Subway Bread is too sweet to be bread. Yes, it’s official, Subway bread is not bread. FINALLY!

After all, we all know that we should all be eating bread like this on a daily basis. Mmmmmm, Irish Brown Bread. There’s nothing better. This photo is from the website Hungry Enough to Eat Six and they have a dandy recipe for Irish Brown Bread here.


Have a WONDERFUl week!

Five Things I Love (1/27/2020)

1. I love making this recipe

In England this is called Toad in a Hole though I haven’t exactly been able to figure out the origin of the name. The “in-the-hole” part seems easy/obvious enough to explain. The toad part is what is eluding me. What I have found out so far is that back in days when meat was scarce and expensive, household cooks would stretch out their beef, kidney, pork or other animal-derived victuals by cooking them into a pudding (that is how Yorkshire pudding came to be) or other dish made from less expensive ingredients. Often times this was done my hollowing out the center, most often a loaf of bread, and filling that with the more expensive ingredients.

Nowadays people will generally use a slice of bread, so this Toad-in-the-Bagel-Hole is a slight variation on what you will usually find in the UK. The only explanation I saw regarding the ‘toad’ part is that in the traditional toad-in-a-hole, the egg can sometimes look like the head of a toad popping out of a hole in the ground. Yeah, I don’t buy that one at all!

2. This method of storing sweaters is BRILLIANT! – How to Hang Sweaters So They Don’t Take Up Your Entire Closet.

And here’s another method that is equally clever (I am using both because each one works a little better for different types of sweaters)….

3. This video on why Daylight Saving is a bunch of hooey!

4. PICARD! I was gleeful when I first read that Patrick Stewart was returning as Jean-Luc Picard. I was a huge Star Trek: the Next Generation fan but I was a fan of his even before the show (that voice, he stands out in every roll he plays and since I am a fan of historical films, well, I got to see him in a few – I, Claudius, Excalibur, and one of my favorites, Lady Jane.)

I was NOT disappointed, first episode of Picard gave me goosebumps. Unfortunately in the US you have to subscribe to CBS Access if you want to see it without waiting for it to show up on Amazon Prime (it’s showing on Amazon Prime everywhere else in the world so I assume that after the first season they will move it over to Prime.) I have been resisting getting CBS Access out of principle but man, I cannot resist Patrick Stewart.

5. Last, but definitely not least, THIS ARTICLE about a man who, after being sentenced to 17 years in prison for having shot a former marine, is nearing completion of a Master’s Degree program. The man, Brandon Brown, has been participating in the University of Maine at Augusta prison college program. He received approval to do his thesis on research about his fellow inmates because he has come to realize that education and restorative justice are things he is extremely interested in and is passionate about. It’s a wonderfully hopeful article and I think it is evidence that education could and would help reduce the incarceration numbers in our country.

Brandon Brown is on track to be the first Maine State Prison inmate to earn a master’s degree while serving time. (Portland Phoenix/Jordan Bailey)

Thanks to my sister-in-law for originally posting this article! xoxoxo