This post is a perfect indication for how much things have changed for me since last year's Foodbuzz Food Blogger Festival. Last year, knowing that bloggers who had never seen my blog before would be reading it (most to see how/why they were mentioned), and with plenty of free time to put it together, I did a very detailed recap with photos of just about everything I ate. This year, I'm so busy producing video recipes already promised to multiple corporate overlords, I'm afraid this will have to do. In addition to not having nearly as much time, any full-blown recap would have taken me four to five times as long to do this year. Why? Because of a breakout session I attended called The Write Taste. Led by friends (and total kick-ass bloggers), Brooke (right) from Food Woolf, Linda (left) from Salty Seattle, and Greg from Sippity Sup, the panel focused on a long list of trite words that wefood bloggers are no longer allowed to use – or as Brooke put it, were "Verboten!" There's regular forbidden, and then there's German forbidden.
This long list of words included: delicious, tasty, yummy, moist, tender, creamy, unctuous, and awesome. Since this represents roughly 87% of my food adjective vocabulary, writing a complete recap would have virtually impossible. It was a really fun session, but unfortunately ended before I had a chance to ask the panel what the hell I'm suppose to use in their place.
Foodbuzz Food Blogger Festival 2010 – Gala Dinner Photo Recap
Saturday night was the Gala Dinner at the 2010 Foodbuzz Food Blogger Festival, and it was quite an evening. The setting was San Francisco's beautiful Ferry Building, and if I knew how to use my camera at night, I would have had some amazing photos.
The festivities started with a cocktail hour in the plaza, and there are very few things I enjoy more than being surrounded by hundreds of chatting food bloggers enjoying wine and passed hors'douves. A couple of my favorites were these zucchini and parmesan madeleines filled with crimson cured salmon and lemon crème; and creamy polenta cups with goat cheese and Provencal vegetables.
After just the right amount of snacking, we moved upstairs to the Grand Hall. The food was done by one of San Francisco's top caterers, Paula LeDuc, and for a crowd this large, I thought the meal was executed very well.
The first course was a roasted golden beet tart with feta, wild arugula, and puree of basil. I've never been a big beets guy, but nevertheless enjoyed this very much. The satisfying tart was impossibly light, almost weightless. The diced red beets alongside provided an excellent textural and visual foil.
Next came my favorite course of the evening, a perfectly seared diver scallops with braised fennel, fried fennel fronds, and a verjus beurre blanc. Knowing how hard it is to serve scallops with such a perfect consistency, even for a small party, I was beyond impressed. I believe I described the texture as how pinching God's cheeks would feel. I really don't know what that means either, but at least I didn’t say "tender."
The main course, rack of lamb loin with pinot noir sauce and butternut squash puree, was expertly prepared also, but suffered from the bad luck of having to follow the scallops. The meat, infused with rosemary and garlic, was flavorful and retained an appropriate level of hydration (man, I would have loved to use "moist" right there). The local wild mushroom ragout alongside was spot on, and the butternut squash puree was butternut squash puree. Above and beyond the [whatever another awesome word that means delicious] food and wine, I was lucky enough to get several great tastes of home-brewed beer smuggled in by my favorite beer blogger (which I can't confirm or deny was Jesse from Beer and Nosh).
The dessert course featured a "Tarta de Almendras" – a buttery almond cake with oranges, figs, and sherry sabayon. The plate was topped with what I initially though was a "shredded wheat crisp" (thanks a lot, too much wine), but what turned out to be a tangle of caramelized parmesan.
Luckily, my buddy Joel, from Six by 10 Tiny Kitchen, corrected me before I made a fool of myself in front of the table, which would have been highly embarrassing since it included food blog rock stars, Pim from Chez Pim, Elise from Simply Recipes, and Mark from No Recipes.
It was an enjoyable evening of great food, wine, and conversation, made even more so when I won a $100 prize for having one of the weekend's best tweets. During the The Write Taste session we were told to use the Twitter hashtag #fbzwrite for our tweets describing bites at the Grand Tasting, after which the five best would be chosen. Here's my winning entry:
Pefect pears plucked with bare fingers, licked clean longer than need be, don't blame me, blame the tree. #fbzwrite
By the way, I've decided to donate my winnings to a holiday charity. I'm not doing this to be nice, or socially responsible, but because Tweeting may one day become an Olympic event, and I want to maintain my amateur status.
A hearty thanks to Foodbuzz for a fabulous weekend of food blogging fun!
*Bonus Coverage!
Here is a great video recap by Lynn Chen from The Actor's Diet. Enjoy!
It was at the height of my food snobbery (I've since been cured) when I first came across the preposterous "cocktail meatballs in grape jelly." I won't pretend I remember the occasion, but I do remember thinking, wow, that's sounds pretty disgusting. Then I tasted it. It was good. How was that possible?
The meatballs certainly weren't homemade, probably straight from the frozen foods aisle at Costco. The crock pot they were in wasn't a pretty sight – dirty-gray balls swimming in an oddly colored pink jelly. But, despite all of this, the dish was surrounded by happy, laughing people, drink in one hand, toothpick-skewered meatball in the other.
It was there I realized that when it comes to party food, some things just couldn't be explained. So, with that as my inspiration, I bring you these turkey cocktail meatballs with orange cranberry glaze. While not quite as "meaty" as the original, this much lower-fat version would make a nice addition to your entertaining repertoire.
One note about the diced hot peppers you'll see me add in the video: Sweet cancels heat. Do not be scared to add these because you don't like spicy food. When you're dealing with a sweet sauce, which this certainly is, the heat from the peppers really gets mellowed out, and you get the benefit of the flavor without all the fieriness.
By the way, you can make these ahead and freeze them without the glaze, then the day of the party, defrost them and simply reheat in the sauce. I hope you give these a try. Enjoy!
Turkey Cocktail Meatballs with Orange Cranberry Glaze Ingredients: (makes about 32-36 cocktail-sized meatballs) 1 1/4 lb ground turkey 1/4 teaspoon poultry seasoning 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon onion powder 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce pinch of cayenne 1 large egg, beaten 1/4 cup milk 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs 1 tablespoon vegetable oil For the glaze 1 cup canned jellied cranberry sauce 1/2 cup orange jelly or marmalade 1/2 cup chicken broth or water 1 tablespoon minced jalapeno peppers, optional 1 tablespoon minced Fresno peppers, optional salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
I'll have a brand new video recipe up tomorrow for a tasty, holiday version of cocktail meatballs that I think you're going to love – if only for the best slow-motion cranberry jelly scene ever filmed. After I post that, I'm taking the rest of the weekend off for a very special event.
This weekend is the 2nd Annual Foodbuzz Blogger Festival, and I could not be more excited! Not only do I get to eat and drink (two of my four favorite things to do), and see lots of my fellow food blogger buddies, but I was also asked to participate as a panelist for one of the Saturday breakout sessions called, "Star of the Show: Video Blogging." Basically, I'm going to give away all of my trade secrets for free.
Of course, there will be lots of fun updates and live reports via my Twitter feed, so stay tuned!
It's right about this time when whoever is organizing the Thanksgiving meal finds out, or assigns, who's bringing what to the dinner. May I suggest a little proactivity (I can't believe that's not a word) on your part to volunteer to bring the cranberry sauce.
Fresh, homemade cranberry sauce is like the easiest recipe ever, and as long as you "sell it" properly, your true motives (maximum love for minimum effort) will be our secret. By "sell it" I mean tell them all about your secret tangerine/cherry-spiked version, and how involved it is to make. Of course, since it is a top-secret recipe, you'll not be able to give details, but you're sure they'll be blown away.
I posted this video last night on YouTube, and several of the viewers made a great suggestion for the spices. I usually just fish them out with a spoon once cold, but if you wrap them in a small piece of cheesecloth, you'll be able to pull them out without what can be an extensive search.
I didn't and usually don't, but you can certainly add a pinch of salt and black pepper to this, or any number of other aromatics. This tangerine cherry cranberry sauce is also really nice served warm as a savory sauce to all kinds of game, like venison, duck, goose, etc. I hope you give it a try. Enjoy!
1 (12-oz) bag fresh cranberries 1 cup small dried cherries (larger ones can be chopped a bit) 1 cup sugar 1 tablespoon finely grated tangerine or orange zest 1 cup tangerine or orange, plus water as needed 1 whole star anise 3 cloves 1 cinnamon stick View the complete recipe
I'm going to be filming a bunch of holiday-themed videos for a special feature on YouTube, and I'd love to know what kinds of things you'd like to see! I've done some fairly standard turkey, gravy, and stuffing video recipes, as well as a bunch of side dishes that work nicely around the holidays, like glazed sweet potatoes, but maybe you'd like to see something a little more exotic? Please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks!
This delicious pumpkin flan is the result of an experiment in replacing the recipe's usual cream and half and half with low-fat milk. While part of me may have been secretly hoping it wouldn’t come out that good (so I could go back to using cream), I was really happy with the results.
As a self-described expert in human nature, especially as it relates to butterfat, I do have one suggestion; keep that whole low-fat thing to yourself. This great holiday dessert idea should be able to stand on its own merits, without a disclaimer regarding the reduced calories.
Having said that, if someone's not thrilled with this leaner version, well, then we reserve the right to bust out the old, "hey, what the hell did you expect, I used low-fat milk instead of cream!?"
One note on the recipe quantity: If you use 5 to 6 ounce ramekins like I did, you'll have enough pumpkin flan mixture for about eight. I only did six for the video, so I didn't want anyone to be confused.
You can refrigerate the mixture and bake these in batches, but of course they will take longer in the oven, since the custard will be cold going in. Also, a cup of sugar will just barely make enough caramel for 8 ramekins, so in the ingredients below I've increased the sugar a bit to make sure you have enough.
This pumpkin flan recipe would be great any time of year, but really shines around the holidays. I'm not saying forgo the usual array of pumpkin pies, but this may be a great alternative for those that want something a little lighter and crust-free. Enjoy!
Ingredients for 8 Individual Pumpkin Flan: 1 1/4 cup sugar 2 tablespoons water 5 large eggs 1/3 cup sugar 1 can pumpkin puree 1 tsp cinnamon 1/2 to 1 teaspoon vanilla (or a split bean) 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves 1/4 teaspoon salt pinch of allspice pinch of mace 1 3/4 cups low-fat milk (for richer version sub 1 cup cream plus 3/4 cup half and half) pumpkin seeds to garnish, optional
This post is a perfect indication for how much things have changed for me since last year's Foodbuzz Food Blogger Festival. Last year, knowing that bloggers who had never seen my blog before would be reading it (most to see how/why they were mentioned), and with plenty of free time to put it together, I did a very detailed recap with photos of just about everything I ate.
Led by friends (and total kick-ass bloggers), Brooke (right) from Food Woolf, Linda (left) from Salty Seattle, and Greg from Sippity Sup, the panel focused on a long list of trite words that we food bloggers are no longer allowed to use – or as Brooke put it, were "Verboten!" There's regular forbidden, and then there's German forbidden.
After just the right amount of snacking, we moved upstairs to the Grand Hall. The food was done by one of San Francisco's top caterers, Paula LeDuc, and for a crowd this large, I thought the meal was executed very well.
The first course was a roasted golden beet tart with feta, wild arugula, and puree of basil. I've never been a big beets guy, but nevertheless enjoyed this very much. The satisfying tart was impossibly light, almost weightless. The diced red beets alongside provided an excellent textural and visual foil.
Next came my favorite course of the evening, a perfectly seared diver scallops with braised fennel, fried fennel fronds, and a verjus beurre blanc. Knowing how hard it is to serve scallops with such a perfect consistency, even for a small party, I was beyond impressed. I believe I described the texture as how pinching God's cheeks would feel. I really don't know what that means either, but at least I didn’t say "tender."
The main course, rack of lamb loin with pinot noir sauce and butternut squash puree, was expertly prepared also, but suffered from the bad luck of having to follow the scallops. The meat, infused with rosemary and garlic, was flavorful and retained an appropriate level of hydration (man, I would have loved to use "moist" right there). The local wild mushroom ragout alongside was spot on, and the butternut squash puree was butternut squash puree.
Above and beyond the [whatever another awesome word that means delicious] food and wine, I was lucky enough to get several great tastes of home-brewed beer smuggled in by my favorite beer blogger (which I can't confirm or deny was Jesse from Beer and Nosh).
The dessert course featured a "Tarta de Almendras" – a buttery almond cake with oranges, figs, and sherry sabayon. The plate was topped with what I initially though was a "shredded wheat crisp" (thanks a lot, too much wine), but what turned out to be a tangle of caramelized parmesan.
It was an enjoyable evening of great food, wine, and conversation, made even more so when I won a $100 prize for having one of the weekend's best tweets. During the The Write Taste session we were told to use the Twitter hashtag #fbzwrite for our tweets describing bites at the Grand Tasting, after which the five best would be chosen. Here's my winning entry:
