 |
 |
January 2009 |
|
Cooking Little is a kitchen shopping and tips blog for urban dwellers and anyone who cooks in a small kitchen. Beyond the kitchen, we feature diversions such as culinary travel spots, classes and tasting events. |
 IN (the Kitchen)
 It was my first day waiting tables at an infamous Mexican restaurant in Denver called "The Riv" and someone asked me for a red beer. Mystified, the bartender's answer hardly helped, "Tomato juice and draw." Soon I learned that "draw" meant draught beer and that some people *just* like red beer, it's not only a hangover remedy. This memory and a recent blood orange debate inspired this weekend's beverages -- Red Beer, Two Ways -- to be served at a mid-day brunch. The menu is TBD but the event is set -- a festive meal before the annual Movie Marathon on Super Bowl Sunday. Way 1: Add to a chilled glass 1 part tomato juice to 2 parts lager or similarly weighted beer. Have available salt and lime because this is the type of drink people customize. Way 2: Pour the juice of half a blood orange into a chilled beer glass. Top with wheat beer or a Belgium white ale. Any beer that is usually served with a lemon slice will do. Garnish with a slice of blood orange. Depending on what type of beer and what variety of blood orange this concoction can be a cloudier than usual beer or a contrast of gold and magenta. Red beer should be drunk cold and fast. Whether it's the Super Bowl or a movie marathon that you are looking for to..have a weekend. Topics
 Winter is beautiful, but so is Europe in spring. This May starts Ciclismo Classico’s season of cycle and stroll tours. The culinary experience of the tours change depending on region and what the group wants to do. Walnuts and truffles available for tasting en route in south west France; olive groves and cooking classes in Cordoba; wine tasting in Croatia and non-stop flavors in Amalfi. By all accounts, including Outside Magazine, Ciclismo local tour guides are exceptionally accommodating folks who help you discover delicacies and views worth the blisters and sore muscles. There are special discounts for Bike Friday owners. (Note to self: start training, start save pennies.) CHECK OUT THE CICLISMO CALENDAR Travel
 (Psst. Stock Up for Shower Season) Right now, Sur la Table and Cooking.com are holding some serious sales. A never before thing, Sur La Table has discounts on many Breville Electrics, like the Ikon blender, a Cooking Little favorite. Some of the sweetest deals at Cooking.com are on Andrew Weil cookware, Le Creuset stockpots and a double-deal on Le Creuset baker dishes that gets you a discount on the first baker, includes a smaller matching baker for free. (The crafty will probably add free shipping on top.) Sure these are winter sales, but it may be a shrewd move to stock up on a few classic kitchen pieces for the upcoming shower and wedding season. Come spring, the sales may not be as inspiring. And, hey, sticking to the registry is sooo 5 stock market dips ago. 20-60% off AT SUR LA TABLE Miscellany
 Farmland Fundraiser Just as more people nationwide are eating more local food, farmland is increasingly at risk for development. Applewood Restaurant, a delicious spot in Brooklyn, is acting locally with a fundraiser featuring a silent auction. Cocktails will ply the bids and the hors d’oeuvres served will be made
with produce from Lucky Dog Organic, the fundraiser beneficiary. Where the money goes...New York State is considering a development rights easement grant for part of the land where
Lucky Dog Organic farms. Money raised from this fundraiser and others will help pay the portion of the easement grant not paid by the New York State.
Admission is $20. which includes hors d’oeuvres. The party is Sunday, February 8th at 6 pm. There will be a cash bar. If you can't make the fundraiser and want to help save a patch of land in upstate New York, checks can be sent to the Applewood Restaurant mailing address made out to Farm Catskills, an advocacy group assisting with the cause. $20.00 AT APPLEWOOD RESTAURANT Miscellany
 The grade school version of you either got your hearts desire of a lunchbox or learned to handle envy early. The Adesso Luxe line from Aladdin features four double wall insulated vessels for toting homemade lattes, tea and soup. The look satisfies any nostalgic need for lunch time style. Pictured here is the 16 oz vacuum bottle with a screw down topper and lid cup. Also available are a tumbler, a travel mug and the 10 ounce vacuum bottle with a stash lid for tea, sugar and lemon. All BPA free. $30.00 AT ALADDIN Eco
READ MORE ON Road Food.
 Is Foodie and Frugal Oxymoronical? Are we still foodies? Maybe; maybe not. First off, such monikers have never set easily for me. The reason isn't modesty. In fact, on a good day I've been known to rate my cooking as fine art. It's the clash of my two cooking influences that make this label uncomfortable. My mother, clearly in the wasting food is a sin camp, would have thought the word foodie to be just south of blaspheme. The professionals who instructed me, culinary teachers and chef bosses, would put the word foodie on the other side of the line between us and them. So if the foodie hierarchy is just the latest causality of the economy, in my opinion, there's more upside than down. I like the idea that there will be more progressive dinners and pot lucks with everyone in the kitchen pitching in. Maybe being a foodie separates us from who we are feeding. A cook whipping up food on a budget for friends, she's a mensch. |
|
