An Evening with Patricia Wells: Salad as a Meal

By far one of the best decisions I've made since moving to Manhattan was becoming a member of FIAF (French Institute : Alliance Française) this past Bastille Day. Tonight found me at another great event in Le Skyroom with my good friend Kyle (also a FIAF member). 

Kyle waiting for the talk to begin

FIAF welcomed Patricia Wells for the American launch of her brand new cookbook Salad as a Meal. Tonight's event was the first in a series of 3 talks and a city-wide tour titled Gardens for Gourmets. Each talk will have a notable guest to guide the conversation and tonight we were happy to welcome the well-known Ina Garten who is a long-time friend of Wells. 

Garten introduced Wells as the second most influential person in bringing French cuisine to America, of course, after Julia Child. Salad as a Meal is Wells' 12th book. One of her best-known works is The Food Lover's Guide to Paris (which I believe Wells said would be coming out in a newly revised and updated version soon). Garten remarked that Salad as a Meal is a combination of what Wells loves - fresh, simple market ingredients and easy, beautiful cooking. Garten recollects that when she and Wells go to fresh markets, Wells is always asking the growers what they do with their bounty; 'well what do you do with those raspberries?' Finding out what the people who are bringing the food to the table do with it in their own homes is a way to come up with new ways of using ingredients. 

Wells and her husband, Walter Wells, split their time between Paris and Provence. The couple moved to Paris in 1980 when Wells' husband was offered a job as an editor for the  International Herald Tribune (and he has a piece in the recently released, excellent collection of works about Paris, Paris Was Ours). They stayed on in Paris for Wells' job as a restaurant critic for the International Herald Tribune. Before becoming the cookbook author and Paris/Provence home cooking school teacher she is today, Wells worked extensively as a journalist and restaurant critic. When speaking about what it is like living in France she mentioned how a foreigner is always an outsider looking in, never fully part of the "club." As a journalist she found this exteriority to be a helpful perspective, aiding in giving a view  on a subject at arm's length.

As the first of a series of "Gardens for Gourmets" talks, Wells spoke to her own growing philosophy. In Provence she has a beautiful garden (there are some stunning photographs in the book), Wells encouraged audience members to grow something (same advice Marion Nestle gave at a talk I attended in June 2010). Rosemary was her best suggestion for a good, hearty herb to grow on an urban windowsill (if only I had windows!). Boasting an impressive garden, last year she had 40 varieties of tomatoes and even has her own vineyard producing a Côtes du Rhône. (You can find her wine at Eli Zabar's W.I.N.E next to TASTE on the Upper East Side of Manhattan.)

Personal Culinary Epiphany: Homemade Brown Sugar (and some favorite cookie recipes!)

This tip may come as no surprise to some of you, but tonight I had a glorious revolution! 

After finally restocking my kitchen with sugar and flour last Wednesday I've had the urge to bake. I made some blueberry muffins last week but I hadn't baked good old chocolate chip cookies in longer than I remember. Tonight I decided I would bake some using my favorite cookie recipe: Toll House Cookies! 

As I was getting ready to head into the kitchen to whip up a batch I realized I didn't have brown sugar! This is a problem I often face and solve by running around the corner to the store to buy some. Tonight I got smart and finally came up with a solution! I said to myself, "well, brown sugar is just white sugar with molasses..." and the wheels turned. I have some blackstrap molasses for when I make Elie Krieger's Flu-Fighter Cookies and of course I have white sugar... *lightbulb!* mixing them with a little water will produce homemade brown sugar! 

Homemade Brown Sugar

A little less than 3/4 cup of granulated sugar

1 tablespoon of molasses (use less for lighter brown sugar, if you prefer)

Enough water to make the sugar "packed" (about 2 tablespoons)

Put sugar in a bowl, pour in molasses. Stir/Whisk together with fork until the sugar is mostly brown. Then add the water little by little until you get the desire of loosely 'packed' brown sugar. Voila! 

Yield: about 3/4 cup of brown sugar (the exact amount called for in the Toll House recipe) 

These are the cookies I always go to when I need to bake. The recipe is on the back of any bag of chocolate toll house morsels but it is written on my heart and I know all the measurements without looking. I always like to add a bit of cinnamon for spice and some rolled oats for texture. The result is the perfect, homey chocolate chip cookie. 

A moist, yet crunchy perfect cookie.

Never be without brown sugar again! Enjoy!

Kelsey Nixon Teaches the Essentials: Tips, Tools, Techniques, Pantry and More!

This past Tuesday I attended an excellent class taught by chef Kelsey Nixon sponsored by The Learning Annex.

Kelsey Nixon

Going into the class I wasn't sure what to expect. My fellow audience members and I were wondering "where's the kitchen?" when we entered the room at the Midtown Hitlon East. The description given by the Learning Annex didn't say there would be cooking, I think we just assumed Kelsey would be showing off some of her kitchen skills to help us learn them. 

Instead of cooking, we receive a very informative and fun presentation from Kelsey and great discussion with a room full of experienced home cooks. Kelsey gave a detailed background of her journey getting to where she is today. She has had great experiences from interning with Martha Stewart's Everyday Food, to working on her own cooking show in college: Kelsey's Kitchen, to earning a culinary degree from Le Cordon Bleu Hollywood, working on Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade, to being a contestant on The Next Food Network Star (which is where I know her from best) and finally to being one of Cooking Channel's leading chefs with Kelsey's Essentials. 


Kelsey's presentation covered the essentials in terms of Tips, Tools, Techniques, Pantry, and how to stay organized and implement these into your routine. Some of the essentials are no-brainers that any practiced home cook will have learned, hence why they are essential. But others are very smart ideas that can make a big difference in the kitchen. Here are 6 Essential Lists from Kelsey. More information and comments from Kelsey have been given in italics. 

Notes on my Favorite Food Magazines

In light of some awesome June and July issues that are out on the stands now and this digital revival of Gourmet magazine it seems a good time to share with you my favorite magazines and why I love them.

Here are the food magazines I subscribe to and suggest that you should, too! 

If you like magazines but hesitate to make a commitment, remember it is always saves to subscribe!:

Saveur

Okay I'm going to come right out there and declare Saveur my *favorite* food magazine! 

I didn't really know about it before I started watching Top Chef masters last year (Hi, James Oseland!) and I had not noticed it on newsstands until I moved to Manhattan and started shopping at Whole Foods. I bought my first issue this year and subscribed right away from one of the insert cards and have been salivating and learning every month since. 

Become a Fan of the Culinary Librarian on Facebook!

I've made a Facebook page to quickly share links, photos, and musings longer than 140 characters! 

Feel free to "Like" me to be updated on all sorts of on-goings! 


http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Culinary-Librarian/123899134306768

I've been considering doing a giveaway ... so maybe if I reach a certain number of followers on Facebook/Blogger/Twitter I will decide what to do! 


Hope you like the postings. Please feel free to upload links & photos you think your fellow readers would enjoy! 

Culinary Tweets

When I first started my own Twitter account back in the fall I really didn't know what to do with it. I thought Twitter was kind of pointless (due to facebook) and confusing (because I didn't get notified everytime anything happened by email, again due to facebook). I also was frustrated by the character limit and felt as if my thoughts were constantly being cut off.

It took me about a month to get the hang of it and realize just how useful 140 characters of microblogging can be-- especially for foodies! For one, tons of celebrity chefs, food critics, and respected foodies tweet many times a day, providing insights on a wide range of culinary areas. There are also plenty of restaurants/cafes/bakeries, grocery & specialty stores, food carts/trucks (especially helpful in NYC for the trucks who move daily and update their location on twitter), farmer's markets, foodie newletters, and culinary publications such as magazines & cookbooks who all provide insider tips, general information, event news, and promotional notifications. Twitter has become an excellent resource for me to find out about what is happening in the culinary world around me which is constantly changing. It is also an excellent forum for give-aways which I myself have been lucky enough to win (Gift Cards from Lenny's in NYC). The tweeters who win these give-aways are known as "Twinners" = Twitter + Winner. Some recent culinary give-aways include:

• Kitchen Aid Mixers from @MarthaStewart
• Kitchen Aid attachements from @KitchenAidUSA
• Gift Cards to Whole Foods and NYC restaurants
• Cookbooks from celebrity chefs such as @jamie_oliver (King of the US School Lunch Revolution)
• A popcorn maker from @bonappetitmag

In all, whether you're looking to share information with others, post pictures of your latest gustation, tweet to your favorite chef about how much you love her/him, learn about all of @GaelGreene's latest thoughts about NYC Restaurants, or win something you've always wanted (i.e. a Kitchen Aid!) then Twitter is definitely worth trying out.
To follow me and check out some of my favorite culinary tweeters, check out my twitter page to the right or click here: @culinarylibrari.


Happy Tweeting!