readers!
i have started hearing from a few of you that you aren’t getting blog post updates anymore.
let me explain:
there is a really great new website hosting all details FHK-related. any new blog posts can be found here (www.forkheartknife.com/blog/)
as a result of this move, you won’t receive email updates when i post. so, please check when you think of it, or figure out some other fancy, internet-savvy way to catch the new posts!
THANKS! for moving around (on the internet) with me!
we finally have forkheartknife.com operational. please check there for all future updates.
thanks!
at the risk of being VERY confusing! we will be changing our hours with the end/start of the new year!
WEDNESDAY/THURSDAY DINNER 5 PM- 10 PM-ish
SATURDAY/SUNDAY BRUNCH 10 AM -2 PM-ish
this NEW, improved schedule will begin wednesday 12/29/10. with our first saturday brunch on 1/1/11!!!!
you can always catch such details (including holiday hours) at our website: http://www.forkheartknife.com/
cranberries and almond. i love the smell and taste of almond extract this time of year. its the stuff we laumers put in our sugar cookies. and i just realized that we should probably throw some sort of christmas cookie baking/decorating party?!
this was an interesting and fun experiment! don’t know if we’ll ever do these beet cakes again, but i’m really glad we tried them (and that some of you tried them too!)
the recipe- using raw beets, brown rice and caramelized onions seasoned with paprika and cayenne. (VEGAN!) the earth of the beets with the sweet and hot and smokey onions was so interesting. (would maybe make a unique sandwich patty?)
the ratios- in case you’d like to try at home: in the chopper, spun chunks of a raw beet until shredded. one onion caramelized and seasoned. 2 cups cooked brown rice. took half of the beet out of the chopper and put into a mixing bowl. spun the rest of the shredded beet with the rice and onion. added that mix to the beet shreds and rolled it all together. shaped handfuls of the stuff into patties and fried up in a bit of canola oil, seasoning with more salt before you flip them.
i could eat this salad forever! local spinach and some hunks of goat cheese, walnuts and two of the most time consuming fruits imaginable! segmented oranges and pomegranate seeds!
orange vinaigrette: about half an onion, 1 c. fresh squeezed orange juice, 1/2 c. champagne vinegar, salt, crushed red pepper and oil. i could drink it!
i get so excited about the yogurt! what is it all about? every week, it is the most exciting part of brunch for me to think about… i guess i love it so much because i have started thinking of the whole dish with the “pastry chef” part of my brain. which i try really hard to repress, but it keeps poking out!
the year or so that i spent doing mostly pastry work was very hard on me. going through culinary school, everyone assumes (or used to) that the girls all wanted to be pastry chefs. and i didn’t think that i wanted to be one. all the measuring and science- and then in fine dining, all the itty bitty little bites of sweet.. it all just seemed too precise… so i fought against the pastry stuff for a long time.
BUT! i must say that while i hated working that year in pastry and hated feeling like i wasn’t a cook because i was measuring and baking and playing with fruit and chocolate and lots of butter– it was such a wonderful learning experience and has completely influenced the way i cook! and the way i think of our yogurt “parfait”!
this week, i was thinking of wine poached pears… which pair perfectly with something creamy and vanilla = yogurt!
peeled 12 pears, leaving the stems. placed them in a heavy bottomed pan and poured a bunch (6 c. -ish) of red wine* over top.. added 4 c. sugar, a light sprinkle of cinnamon, a lighter sprinkle of nutmeg and clove. spooned the mix over the pears and set the whole thing on low heat for a bit, spooning more liquid over the pears when i thought of it (which was often because the smell of everything heating up was AMAZING!) flippped the pears over once, during a 30 minute period-you’ll notice the side facing down gets a deeper red color.
i left the pears in the liquid in the fridge overnight. in the morning, i cut them in half and scooped out the seeds and the strand of tough that runs from the stem to the bottom, leaving the stem- for effect.
yayayaya! this is such a perfect combination of flavors for this season. the mulled wine flavor with the sweet pear and the creamy vanilla honey yogurt. wow. i think i’ve outdone any other yogurt thus far!
*red wine– this is the season for drinking red wine, and i constantly have a few cups left in the bottle after a few days. at this point, the wine isn’t optimal for drinking, but it is optimal for using in cooking. i save these bottles up and keep them around for times like this: poaching liquid!
these pears were poached in a few different types of wine, but most of a bottle of this DUNHAM CELLARS MERLOT went into the pot. made by my sister, jenna (and others) in walla walla, WA. the empty bottle will live on our shelf, but i’m glad the juice went to such a worthy cause!
we’ve had a few pumpkins sitting in the window for a while and i wanted to use them up this week!
we were planning a FIESTA menu for dinner on friday night- thought it might be a nice change from thanksgiving leftovers… so i looked up a flan recipe and found one using pumpkin. perfect!
this was my first attempt at flan-ning. it was pretty easy and turned out REALLY GREAT. nothing to be scared of!
i roasted one large and one smaller pumpkin- but i probably just needed to do the big one. ran the pumpkin meat through the processor. scooped 3 1/2 c. of pumpkin puree (and saved the rest for this sunday’s yogurt!). added 3 teas. cinnamon, 1/2 teas. nutmeg, 1/2 teas. salt, a sprinkle of clove and a good bit of fresh grated ginger.
made a caramel using 2 c. sugar in a dry, heavy bottomed pan. let the sugar burn over low heat until it was dark and caramelized. then poured that into the bottom of a warm casserole dish (the flan pan!)
for the custard: warmed 3 c. heavy cream with 2 c. milk and a good bit of vanilla bean paste. whisked the warm milk mix into 10 eggs and 2 yolks. added the spiced puree to the custard mix and poured the whole business over the caramel.
baked the whole thing, covered, for over an hour, in a water bath… once the center of the custard had just a slight jiggle, we called it done and stuck her into the fridge overnight.
the next morning, ran a knife around the edge of the casserole and flipped it quick onto a tray. the custard popped right out, covered in caramel!
i prefer it to pumpkin pie! the custard is rich in flavor, and light and creamy like a mousse! YUM!
we got a few mentions in this month’s CINCINNATI MAGAZINE!
i haven’t held the actual magazine (it’s only just been mailed to subscribers, and isn’t on magazine racks, yet) or seen any of the layout- but my sweet sister got a copy at work and took some photos so that i could see a preview!
and i’ll give you a peek!
there is a section about what’s hopping on main street–
and a little blurb to go along with that:
and then the biggest surprise (and what we’ve been spending lots of time processing these past few weeks!), BEST OF WEEKEND BREAKFAST! as if there wasn’t enough of a wait on sundays already– but here it goes!
i can’t speak for leah, but i know that this feels so wild to me. (i’m sure it also feels wild for her, too!) i have spent lots of time as a younger cook, pouring over cincinnati magazines, reading about restaurants, cooks and chefs. and now we are in there? it feels surreal, and i can’t quite wrap my head around it. i constantly worry about the level of expectation that folks are bringing to our place, after all these great, positive mentions in so many of cincinnati’s food guides… we are just cooking! most of the time not doing anything that someone, somewhere hasn’t already done before… but we are doing it with love and usually with a smile and the intention of nurturing people, having fun and making a bit of a living! i hope that we are able to keep doing what we are doing, growing and changing as we need to- to have this continue to bring so much into our lives!
there is so much to be thankful for! i’m thankful for the chance to express myself on this blog, through food, photos and writing. i’m so thankful to have found such a positive way to live my life without jenna. and i am so thankful to have such a great, loving, creative partnership with leah. thanks!
i like soup. so much. this one has onions, garlic, celery, carrots, tomatoes, white beans, butternut squash, red potatoes, and kale.
this week has been kind of on the harder side. not much because of work, but because i am feeling a lot and am having emotional reactions before i quite know why or how or who…
we put jenna into her spot at spring grove cemetary on monday. a day i knew was coming, but one that i didn’t realize would hold so much weight for me. you know, since the restaurant is so fun and good… since i am happy, mostly and in love, a lot. and feeling for the most part like i am keeping the spirit alive and living in a way that does jenna and myself a good deal of justice. spoiling the crap out of marlow. you get the picture. doing the best i can. (i hope.)
well, sunday night and into monday morning i was sending facebook messages back and forth with a wonderful woman that i have gotten to know better through FHK. i have known for a while that she has cancer and has had it for a while, but she always seems so light and happy and good, that i took for granted that she could be having to deal with the shittier parts of cancer and treatment and that whole mess. last week found her in the hospital with a gnarly infection and of course i was sending food and right back at thinking about this time last year… (also started the waterworks, which continued for most of the day..)
there is something to be said for creating a meal for someone who will appreciate it far more than the restaurant diner. it is so much more satisfying for me, during the whole cooking process to know that i will be sending something nourishing and colorful off to someone whose day is full of the florescent lights of a hospital, whose social interactions are limited to visiting family and nurses. to imagine their delight at the appearance of a meal that is different than what is offered in the cafeteria… i find that my energy and my SELF go into this kind of cooking… doing this act of giving gives me a sense of closeness to jenna and i guess that is all i am looking for these days…
there is nothing that comes close to this sense of purpose with the meals that we serve at FHK. those meals are special, don’t get me wrong- i look forward to them and i love the interactions that are a part of them. we have created a place that feels full of community and sharing over food and comfort and nourishment… folks are loving the connection and the food and that makes me so happy! but it doesn’t compare for me. there has been lots of talk over the “kitchen” table this week of morphing this into a non-money trading business that would do this kind of cooking for those who could use it….
sometimes i wonder what all i should post on this blog, knowing that we use it to give folks an idea of our food and our place. this might be pushing the limit- but i think it is good to get this down, to keep track of where i am going, etc.
let’s hope this soup is a cure-all for cancer!
and maybe some day i’ll be rich enough to get into some sort of ‘non-money trading food business’. HA!
forkheartknife 