Finger licken' good

Hamfest: A Festival of Lies

Logan and I were checking out the garage sales in small towns near Ithaca NY, when by fate we stumbled upon this little number.

 We whipped the car around to check out this festival celebrating one of the most prized meats... Ham.  As we pulled into the festival that would surely be full of prized princess pigs and wonderful ham sandwiches I noticed this second sign.

A Ham Radio!!  Wow, they really are going all out.  A whole radio show dedicated to hams.  This is my kind of town!!  But when we entered we didn't see any pigs...

... we just some older guys with electronics and rusty hardware peices.  Not my idea of a Hamfest.  HRRRMPPHH!

Insalata Caprese

Not 100% sure what that title means, but I got it from wiki and wanted something more interesting than Caprese Salad. If you are looking to impress someone, but don't have a lot of time, I found out that Caprese Salads are a good way to go. Though I did not make this dish, Riley did, I figured I'd post it to get Joe off my back. pictures GO!

looks good eh? I suppose I should take a stab at ingredients (again, this is Riley's dish)

garden greens

fresh mozzarella slices

tomato

olive oil and pepper

basil leaves

However, this is a little too... how you say... vegetarian for my taste, maybe this will help:

A sun dried tomato pork tenderloin from cub. Not as photogenic as the salad, but wait, what happens when we put it all together?

BOOSH, now that is a meal.

Seconds please!

NYC Bakery 1/12: The Doughnut Plant

1. Intro
A few weeks ago I had the esteemed pleasure to travel to New York City on a...ahem research assignment.  I flew into crowded overstimulating city after being on an island for 2 and a half weeks with 3 other people, kinda a contrast wouldn't you say.  To hell with the statue of liberty, empire state building, The Maury show, and any other tourist traps.  We didn't go to any!  Instead we went to 12 bakeries, yes during our weekend stay we visited 12 bakeries and virtually nothing else.  I have been commissioned with reporting to you one of the 12 places that were visited, The doughnut Plant.

2. Doughnuts.  (Preconcieved notions)
I never really have been a huge fan, I mean I certainly wouldn't turn down two or three if offered but honestly, they usually don't bring a whole lot to the table.  Often they are dry and cakey with a black "chocolaty" coating of wax, not that apealing.  And whats the deal with the HOLE!  My preconvieved ideas of doughnuts were nothing but lies and propaganda forced upon me by places like Duncan doughnuts, bad bakeries and grocery stores.  It wasn't until destiny would stumble me upon a dumpy little place in the middle of Florida that my ideas of doughnuts changed.  When i took a bite of a homemade labor of love doughnut my eyes widened and I said holy **&@*@, that is how a doughnut should be.   Perfectly crisp exterior with a melt in your hammy mouth interior.

3. Back in NY
The doughnut Plant Owner, Mark Israel, was about the worst person featured on Bobby Flay's throwdown.  He got real upset when the show wasn't entirely about him, but no worries his Tres Leches doughnut did just fine in front of the camera.  The plant is nothing but a cramped little area with no room for seats and cannot even contain the que of people eagerly awaiting a doughnut with their tongues out like they are little girls (or grown women) in line to get an autograph by a shirtless Taylor Lautner.  Mark Israel features doughnuts that have love and care stuffed in them as I was soon to find out.



4. Creme Burlee Doughnut: The First Doughnut
We picked this little sucker up just for the novelty of it, I mean how good can a Creme Brulee doughnut be. To answer myself... Excellent!  It was a small yeast doughunut, about the size of a hackey sac, with a hard bruleed top.  Inside was a custardy delight, something so wonderful... so fantastic that a Disney Princess couldn't even dream of something so magical.  It was a perfect rendition of this famous fancy sweet.  I couldn't believe it!  All i could say was "Mark you old dog, you nailed it!"

5.  Carrot Cake Doughnut
This is a fairly standard doughnut... don't get me wrong a fanfrickentastic  cake doughnut but nothing life changing.   It had the perfect texture of a cake doughnut with candied carrots on top.  Somehow Mr. Israel managed to infuse a light cream cheese frosting inside without making any aparent holes (besides the obvious one in the middle) in the doughnut.  Hmmm its certainly intriging!!!



6.  The tres leches doughnut
Mark Isreal's money maker is the Tres Leches Doughnut.  It conquered the Iron chef's doughnut in "throwdown" and aparently took him years of painstaking baking to perfect.  As is told by the people of Wikipedia Tres leches means three milk in spanish and it makes an excellent sponge cake in some spanish speaking countries that are south of us.  The three milks that make the tres leches includes: evaporated milk, condensed milk, and heavy cream.  This sucker was good.  Hams down the best doughnut I have ever had the pleasure to put in my mouth.  I can't really describe the taste but it just melted in my mouth in a milky sort a way.  I liken this experience to a thirsty baby just going threw the trauma of being born and getting its first taste of milk.  As with the Carrot Cake there was some infused milk (probably of the evaporated varity) mixed in with the cake.   This doughnut is inspiring.

7. The return
When we returned the next day to get more of that naughty Tres Leches, we decided to add another doughnut under our belt (literally).  The Peanut Butter and Strawberry Jam yeast doughnut.  The Jam is ofcourse house made, we infact saw a crate full of organic berries being hauled into the magic room.  This doughnut was great, it was perfectly a PB&J.  Having said that, it was limited as a yummy dessert or desert (which ever doesn't mean a sandy place with dunes) because of its perfection.  Peanut butter and Jelly sandwiches aren't that wonderful after all, and what we got was probably the best tasting, most yeasty, most gooey PBJ around.  But at the end of the day it was just a PB&J. 


8. Epilogue
We planned to stay in the city late Sunday night, soaking up as much of the city and calories as we could.  However, after round two of the Doughnut Plant I was eager for both a toilet and a rest.  So we threw in the towel and we left New York many hours before we that was needed.

We who are about to dine salute you!

Lousy picture but an interesting first.  Using a head of Romain, plucked yesterday morn by Miss Jensen at Freedom and Unity farm, I began to concoct my dinner plans.  As instructed by Tyler Florence I combined garlic, Dijon mustard, egg yolks, parm (the king of cheese), oil and anchovies to make caesar dressing.  I cut the Romain in half and gave it a sensual massage of olive oil before placing it on the grill.  I must warn you, as the greens charred it smelt like a high school bathroom after some punks thought it was a good idea to have a joint in between class. I threw on some bread to toast, kinda sorta a crouton substitute, and I fed myself and my gal a grilled salad.   Nothing too amazing but i enjoyed grilling the Romain and thought I shall share.