Find me elsewhere

I know I'm kinda cheating on my readers by working on photographs and then not showing them to you. To make it up to you I'm going to show you a picture of the most delicious thing I ate all week, and then post links to other web sites with my food photos.  LINKS!  Aren't you excited? I'm sure

So this is a salad my good friend Chris made at the Evolution of Food Dinner.  It was so good that I made it again the next night for dinner.  Except I don't have easy access to ordering from restaurant distributors, so I couldn't get my hands on Frisee.  But I do love me some Arugula so I went down that route instead.  I fried up two slices of bacon (though the meat of choice is the picture above was lardon/pancetta, which is more authentic and appropriate, but guess what, bacon is still delicious) and mixed the leftover bacon grease with some cider vinegar, sliced up some pears and some local aged sheep milk cheese (instead of the delicious Manchego Chris used) and it was SO good.  Definitely being added to the winter salad rotation.  I also bought a comice pear that I didn't think was ripe enough, but once I sliced into that baby, it turns out it was perfect.  Thanks for the inspiration Chris!  For more pictures and thoughts about the Evolution of Food dinner head over to my article on the Heavy Table. 

And in case you missed it last week I now have a weekly feature Foodography over at the City Pages Hot Dish Blog where you can see a glimpse into my food related activities for the week.  This week involves homemade butternut squash pizza.  Yum! 

Life is too short to drink Folgers

First, let me thank everyone for their patience with my crappy response time to my contest ends.  I'd love to say that I can just be sitting by the computer and have a winner ready moments after the contest ends, but as most people in my life can attest to, I am kind of an over achiever, and actually sit in front of the computer much less often that I'd actually like to. 

Regardless, lucky number 21 was the winner of the Surdyks Give Away (WTG Ellen!) And as with many of the people who read my blog and enter my food and beverage related contests, Ellen and I could probably be good friends since, from her blog it seems as though she loves Italy, Photography, Food and Running.  It also seems as though she recently returned from a stint in Italy from whence she brought home a big chunk of Pecorino Romano.  And since I'm filled with hormones today (I just got home from holding the sweetest little baby) I'm already feeling weepy, and now damn it Ellen, I really miss Italy.  So thanks for that!  Now you can buy MORE Pecorino Romano from Surdyks.  Pair it with some truffle honey, a nice thinly sliced pear and una martini bianco. Wow... you'll be missing those gorgeous palazzi, sono sicura di questo.  Sigh.

Let's move on from nostalgia and on to cool things you can do to entertain yourself in Minnesota in winter, shall we? I TRY to come up with creative things to do for my blog for a few reasons.  It keeps me entertained, I like to challenge myself and I like to make things that might otherwise be scary (like making pate, or cooking rabbit, growing vegetables for the first time, etc) become normal every day experiments rather than big scary projects that consume lots of time and money.  So this last week I roasted coffee.  Because... why the hell not?

I got some green beans (of the coffee variety) and tips from my friend Shawn at Public Coffee House and went to town.  He told me I could definitely do it in an air popcorn popper, but that would have involved a trip to at least one thrift store and I really wanted to try this roasting thing immediately. I was also advised that I could roast in the traditional Ethiopian method, which is just over a flame in a nice hot pan.  I tried REALLY hard to get this pan as clean as possible since it has a pale background I figured the colors would pop better.  My cleaning efforts failed (EVEN with Barkeepers friend, ugh!) but you won't judge me for that.  If anything you'll judge how dirty my stove top is but you won't do that either.  Right?

So how do you do this yourself?

Well, start with a hot pan.  HOT.  I heated mine up for at least 3 minutes for a porcelain coated cast iron pan.  And could really feel the heat coming off of it when I held my hand about 6 inches above the surface. Then you add your beans.  I decided to make just about enough for one pot (which turned into several small batches using our moka, so really whatever quantity you want is probably just fine.  And then the fun begins.  Stir constantly (except for the few times I braved putting down my wooden spoon to take a picture) and wait with your eyes on the beans. 

Shawn informed me I would hear something called a first crack.  This is an audible noise (much like a cracking log on a bonfire) that indicates the coffee has reached a specific place in the roasting method.  When my beans started cracking, I knew I wasn't doing everything TOTALLY wrong, so that was swell.  Stir on and approach a color you think looks like the coffee you normally buy.  Expect to hear some intermittent snaps (which I hope/think was the second cracking).  My bean colors weren't totally even, but hot damn, they looked like coffee!  Turn off the heat off and let them cool for a bit.  Let me be clear that roasting coffee beans does not smell like the coffee aisle at the supermarket.  It smells like burning, so don't do this with anticipation of having a delicious smelling house if the in-laws are coming over. Try this though: after they cool I put them in an air tight container and wait 5 minutes.  Then open that baby up and stick your nose in. Suddenly all that burn-y smell has become heavenly!  And there you go, you've roasted your own coffee beans!

If you're interested in learning more about roasting your own beans check out Sweet Maria's for much more detailed and specific instructions.  Shawn from Public Coffee House does have the green beans for sale in the Twin Cities metro and can be contacted at info(at)publiccoffeehouse(dot)com or you can buy them from Sweet Maria's on the national level.

One last very exciting piece of news on the home front is my new weekly photo column "Foodography" over on the City Pages Food Blog, The Hot Dish.  Every week I'll be documenting my adventures as a Twin Cities foodie in pictures so be sure to check back frequently!