Quail, Pea Purée, Carrots, Jus

I was seriously spoiled in culinary school.  We had kitchen porters and limitless pans that allowed us to make dishes with five different components in two hours.  Now at home when I try to be just slightly ambitious it takes me twice as long and I'm twice as stressed because I'm just washing the same two pans over and over again.

Multi-Seed Spelt Crackers

I have an obsession with these multi-seed Norwegian crispbreads or knekkebrød.  I went through a phase of oat cakes, then Ryvita and now these.  The crackers I made featured in this post aren't exactly like those but I tried.  My Norwegian boyfriend is my supplier of knekkebrød but he can't keep up with my demand unfortunately and so sometimes I resort to making my own cracker equivalent.

Rustic Milk Cookies (Biscotti al Latte)

It's approaching midnight and I'm contemplating what I should have for breakfast tomorrow.  If I were like my Italian peers, I'd have cookies and coffee.  But I'm difficult.  See, these would be the ideal breakfast cookies for Italians, especially the children, because of their simplicity.  They're uncomplicated in terms of flavor, texture and aesthetics, but they're perfectly lovely.  Plain but soft, light and delicate. Very Italian. It's what the kids would eat.  Or my mother, she loves them.

Best Eats This Week: Maison Blanc's Wine & Patisserie

It is romance at its peak.  In the back garden of Fulham's Maison Blanc, you have trees, flowers, wood decking, climbing plants intertwined with colorful fairy lights.  Simple wooden round tables are adorned with mini candles and a small vase of flowers.  At the corner there are two men playing Latin music on the guitar.  And it's a place to have dessert and wine. 

Italian Red Wine Cookies

They smell like Christmas but look like Halloween.  It's a rather off-putting grey-caramel, I know, but the burgundy doesn't quite come through without food coloring I'm afraid.

 With a half open bottle of red wine in my house, instead of appreciating the act of drinking alone, I just thought of marinades, stews and cookies, as I'm still a child.  

Best Eats This Week: Corkers Crisps

Crisps in the market have gone through a transformation -- from the factory processed junk food with an ingredient list incomprehensible to anyone without a Chemistry degree, to all the artisan hand-cooked crisps that have been loved and cared for from beginning to end.   Crisps have gone gourmet and healthy(-er). 

Corkers is one of such, with a family potato farm in Cambridgeshire that's been around since the 1800s, and all their crisps are cooked on site.  They have been awarded UK Potato Grower of the Year, which I suppose is as prestigious as it gets in the crisps world.  But more importantly, they have been named Best Regional Supplier by Waitrose and three of their crisp flavors have been awarded gold stars from The Great Taste Awards.