London Fog Creme Brulee

Having made macarons (and all that swiss buttercream) last weekend, I had a ton of egg yolks left over in my fridge.  How to use them all up?  I had a couple of ideas (mostly taken from this helpful site of yumminess) but I decided on creme brulee, and why not, really.

After the complexities of macarons, Alton's basic recipe for creme brulee wasn't quite exciting enough, so I took some inspiration from my favourite London Fog and turned it up to 11.  A bit of earl grey infused into the cream, and a whole vanilla bean's worth of caviar really made this one special.

Yum.

That Sort of Sunday

Have you ever had the sort of Sunday where you make bread pudding for supper? (Please take a moment to admire those browned crusty bits poking out the top, which somehow soaked up the sweet eggy mixture and then caramelized in the oven into something truly heavenly.)



The sort of Sunday, I mean, where you drown it in warm whiskey sauce and then curl up on the sofa to eat and knit and watch the latest episode of Rubicon?

Worth a Thousand Words

Another completed project, because I have no better way to spend my time, besides knitting. There is only one sock in the photo because it's really a lot more trouble than it's worth, right now, to put the other sock on my other foot. The photo is blurry because it's also hard to pose that one foot for a good photo, when I can't really bend the other leg.

Please note the piles of CDs and DVDs and a pile of empty boxes -- something I would be spending time on, if I could. Yeah, that's just me feeling sorry for myself again.

How about a snack to cheer up?

Shout Out

Just wanted to point out that there is a new blog on my sidebar: my HLM is chronicling his final couple of months in "Chef School." It's a very mixed-media affair, over there.

Before you get jealous, I should point out that I don't get to eat any of this stuff.

Nom Nom Noms

I tried a new recipe last night -- the magazine I found it in calls it Oh My God Chicken, and I can't say I disagree with that. There are several whole heads of roasted garlic nestled in there amongst that saucy chicken, and some white wine and red pepper and onion and kalamata olives, not to mention that crunchy bacon crumbled on top, people. Deadly good.

Thanks to the informative internet, I also discovered that I've been making cinnamon toast the wrong way, lo these many years. I always thought (misguidedly) that the various flavour components were all that mattered. Thank you, Ree Drummond, for setting me straight. I sang you many hallelujahs, this morning. I sang them with crumbs flying from my mouth as I devoured the best cinnamon toast ever. If you are a cinnamon toast lover (I am talking to you, Mom) you should really give it a go. And don't leave out the vanilla, either. You will thank her.

I Know, Right?

I've been enjoying the food porn over at The Pioneer Woman Cooks for a while, now, but today I finally decided to take the plunge and make something, to see if it's as easy as she makes it look.


My Caramel Apple Sticky Buns don't look exactly like hers, but they are pretty darn close. That's a precious little cinnamon bun under there, baked in a pan of caramel and finely chopped apple bits, then inverted to cool.

And what's more, I still have half the dough in the fridge -- just wait until you see what else I have planned.

A Dame With an Appetite

I have always been a sucker for goofy personality quizzes. First thing when I got a new women's magazine, I would flip to the quiz and take it, even though I pretty much always ended up in the middle category. (We could think of it as the Baby Bear category: not too hot, not too cold, but juuust right.) So today when I stumbled across the Classic Dames Test online, I just had to try it out. Happily I ended up with Katherine Hepburn, my favourite dame of all.

Your result for The Classic Dames Test...

Katharine Hepburn

You scored 21% grit, 38% wit, 38% flair, and 17% class!

You are the fabulously quirky and independent woman of character. You go your own way, follow your own drummer, take your own lead. You stand head and shoulders next to your partner, but you are perfectly willing and able to stand alone. Others might be more classically beautiful or conventionally woman-like, but you possess a more fundamental common sense and off-kilter charm, making interesting men fall at your feet. You can pick them up or leave them there as you see fit. You share the screen with the likes of Spencer Tracy and Cary Grant, thinking men who like strong women.

I think the funniest part of all is that I scored 17% class! Ouch.

Fortunately the kind of leading man that this dame attracts is the culinary kind. My HLM made a spectacular meal tonight, with steak and mushrooms and mashed potatoes and the most perfect yorkshire pudding this side of Stratford-Upon-Avon.
You might be tempted to come over and share, but too late. It's long gone, by now.

Hope you had a good V-Day, too!

The Perfect London Fog

So since Starbucks has introduced the London Fog into their line of drinks, I've been drinking them constantly. Not buying them, mind you, at $5 a pop -- once I knew the basic recipe, I've been cranking them out at home every day. Wanna play along?

• Start with a cup or so of milk in a small kettle (Creamy milk is better for this, but if you're working on a New Year's Resolution, make it half milk, half water, or use *shudder* skim milk.)
• Add some sugar -- you be the judge of how much you will need for a pleasantly sweet tea.
• Throw in a couple of Earl Grey teabags. I like the Double Bergamot ones from Stash, but any fragrant Earl Grey will do. Extra points if you use loose tea instead of teabags and strain it at the end.
• Heat as slowly as you can stand it, stirring it often, if not constantly. We are looking for wisps of steam to begin rising from the surface.
• In the meantime, put a teaspoon or so of vanilla extract into your mug. If you're still constantly stirring, you'd better be ambidextrous. Extra points if you use vanilla extract you made yourself from a recipe in Craft magazine ages ago. Double the points if you used tequila for the recipe instead of rum. Mmm. Yeah, that's good vanilla.
  
• Pour milky sweet tea into mug over vanilla. Inhale deeply. Drink in ecstasy. Repeat often.

I am dark delicious vanilla extract.

And I only get better with age.

Fueled by Deliciousness

I've been planning some upcoming projects that will use some skills I haven't practiced much. I figured that one good way to practice them would be to make some little mini quilts. Here are a couple that will help me with some machine-applique. So far these are only fused, not yet machine stitched -- everything will be much more defined when they're finished.


In the meantime, my HLM was out of town for a week, and just got home the other night... Talk about a guy who knows his way to my heart, he brought me home a bunch of gourmet peanut butter. Yum. There's Sumatra Cinnamon Raisin, European Cafe Mocha, and (believe it or not) Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough. There will be some great midnight snacks around here, believe me.