builder's booksource

one of my favorite shops is builder's booksource. i could spend hours in there. and i have.

speaking of green stuff (a few posts back), they have piles and piles of books on building and designing eco-friendly homes. i only wish building or designing a home were something i were concerned with these days. but they have lots of books that have nothing to do with that, and seem to be made for lay people like me just to stare at for hours on end. art books, travel books, gifts, journals, calendars. so, so much. it all makes me want to be an architect.


here are some of my favorites from my most recent visit:
atlas schmatlas

heath ceramics: the complexity of simplicity

moroccan interiors

markets of paris

paris, restaurants and more

builder's booksource
1817 4th st.
berkeley, ca 94710

there's also a location in san francisco.

p.s. i once got an ant farm there. so cool!

handmade gift: assortment of salts


Cristaux de Fleur de sel - Crytals of Flower of salt, originally uploaded by Didier-Lg.



along with your main course at the french laundry, you are brought a selection of three fancy salts in a precious silver caddy, complete with tiny spoons (and we all know how i feel about little spoons). because i was there with someone who was considered a vip, we got five or six salts. later, when i met someone whose wife works there, i was told that the really important people get nine. nine salts! there aren't even nine bites of meat on which to sprinkle salt! it's amazing.

*********

salt. my best friend. i love salt. i'd marry salt. in a heartbeat.

the funny thing is that persian food is traditionally very lightly seasoned. and perhaps because she was really health-conscious, my mother was very light-handed with the salt. i was raised with a bland palate.

and then i became a cook.

i remember when i was just starting out at cp, seasoning something and bringing it to a chef to taste. he'd taste it, come back to my pot with me, and oh-so-confidently add handfuls upon handfuls of salt before tasting it again. i'd get upset with myself--how could i have been so far off? this happened time and time again, and with many different chefs and experienced cooks, until one day, i finally got that taste in my own mouth. after eating that food day after day, i began to understand what my goal was, with salt, with acid, with herbs and spices. it's why alice keeps saying you have to taste--tasting is the only way to know, to learn.

anyway, at that time, we used kosher salt in the kitchen. that's part of the reason why they'd add so much of it. kosher salt is only about 1/3 as salty as table salt. when i went to florence, land of the salt lick, i really learned to take things to the edge of saltiness. it's a delicate line to tread, oh, but it makes so much difference. in italy, i got used to using sicilian sea salt, which is quite a bit saltier than kosher salt, for everything. and when i came back, cp had switched to sea salt, too.

at the farm, bob insists on using celtic sea salt, which is unprocessed and chock full of minerals. my other favorite salts are maldon sea salt, fleur de sel, and sel gris.

at le sanctuaire (and this is just a bit too precious for me, but i do think it would make a pretty beautiful gift), you can get black lava salt, hawaiian red salt, japanese deep ocean salt, jurassic salt (one of the ones they bring you at tfl), murray river salt from australia, and pure welsh salt.

so my gift idea is an assortment of salts--you can be as daring or practical as you like. fill a few lovely jars or metal tins with different salts, stick on a beautiful label, and tie on a sweet ribbon, and you're set to go. write a little note with some history about each salt, and let people taste and learn how amazingly different each one can be. the beauty of it all is you don't even need to go to yountville to taste nine salts anymore!


sources:

weck--european canning jars

whole foods--has practically every kind i listed

country cheese shop--i heart berkeley. i know they have maldon, sicilian and fleur de sel.

le sanctuaire--salt, salt, salt (expensive!!!)

celtic sea salt

sks bottle--metal tins with clear tops that would be perfect for this project, as well as lots of glass jars that are really cute

lehman's--more european canning jars

one week of food

my dad sent me an email that led me to search for this website about what people eat. i remember seeing hungry planet: what the world eats a couple of years ago at a friend's house, and being really interested by it. i wish i could post some of the photos for you here, but i can't figure out how to do it, so you'll just have to go over there and look.

make sure to scroll all the way down to the bottom. and look really closely at what they are eating and drinking (and all of the packaging). it's out of control.

handmade gift: pierre herme chocolate-caramel truffles

Valrhona chocolate

, originally uploaded by

mikefranklin

.

these are the best chocolate truffles i've ever had, and the easiest to make. make them with good chocolate, and they'll taste like the best rolos you've ever had.

from chocolate desserts by pierre herme

ingredients:

1 cup (250 g) heavy cream

10 oz. (285 g) bittersweet chocolate (around 70%), finely chopped

6 oz. (170 g) milk chocolate, finely chopped

1 cup (200 g) sugar

2 1/2 T (1 1/4 oz.; 40 g) butter at room temperature, cut into small pieces

pinch of sea salt

dutch-processed cocoa powder (valrhona is the best!)

1. bring the cream to a boil in a saucepan and keep it hot. mix the chocolate together in a heatproof bowl that's large enough to hold all of the ingredients; set aside.

2. working in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat, melt about 3 T of the sugar. when the sugar starts to take on color, stir it with a wooden spoon and add another 3 T of the sugar. stirring constantly, caramelize this new batch of sugar, then add another 3 T. continue until all of the sugar has been added and it turns a rich amber color. lower the heat and, still stirring, add the butter and salt. the caramel will bubble and froth--just stir in the butter, then, still stirring, stand away from the pan and add the hot cream in a slow, steady stream. the caramel will froth even more fuiously--just keep stirring until it is smooth. when the caramel settles down and is smooth, remove the pan from the heat.

3. pour about one-third of the caramel into the center of the chocolate and, working with the wooden spoon, gently stir the creamy caramel into the chocolate in ever-widening concentric circles. when the ganache is smooth, add half of the remaining caramel, blending it into the chocolate in circlesm then finish with the rest of the caramel in the same manner. pour the ganache into a baking pan or bowl. put the pan in the refrigerator and, when the ganache is cool, cover it with plasic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours.

4. when you are ready to shape the truffles, spoon a generous amount of cocoa powder into a bowl, and set out a baking sheet lined with parchment or waxed paper. remove the truffle mixture from the refrigerator and scoop up a scant tablespoonful of ganache for each truffle; put the dollops of ganache on the paper-lined pan. dust the palms of your hands with cocoa powder and, one by one, roll the mounds of ganache between your palms to form rounds. don't worry about making them even--they're supposed to be gnarly and misshapen. as you shape each truffle, drop it into the bowl of cocoa powder, toss it in the cocoa so that it is well coated, and then very gingerly toss it between your palms to shake off the extra cocoa. as each truffle is finished, return it to the parchment-lined pan.

makes about 55 truffles

keeping: if the truffles are no too soft, they can be served as soon as they are coated, or they can be stored in the refrigerator for a day or two, covered and away from foods with strong odors.

since these are pretty delicate, you'll have to give them away quickly. but you'll have friends for life. trust me.

where to shop:

country cheese shop on hopkins--so much chocolate to choose from

spun sugar--chocolate, wrappers, boxes

whole foods--chocolate

japanese dollar stores like ichiban kan (there's now one in el cerrito) and daiso also have lots of sushi papers you can use for truffles.

paper source--a great selection of boxes and ribbons

chocolates i love:

valrhona

el rey

cocoa barry




unsurprisingly (considering my background) , i don't celebrate christmas, or really any winter holiday. but i do love giving gifts, especially ones i make. i'm mostly just tired of accumulating stuff, so i try not to give stuff that won't be used. the thing about handmade gifts is that they are usually consumable, so i can rest assured that i'm not perpetuating the creation of piles of junk in the universe.

as we enter the holiday season, i'm going to post some handmade gift ideas and how-tos for you guys, some crafty stuff, and some food stuff, as well as some sources for packaging and supplies. i hope you'll find it useful...



alright, i promise this is the last time i'm going to mention sunday. i just felt like i need to write something to be able to look back on and remember how lovely it was.

i think the reason why it was so great is that everyone was included. i kind of purposely didn't want to have everything done so that i could put people to work when they got there, and involve everyone in making the meal. that's what the farm is about--connecting with land, and people, and food--and i wanted everyone to experience that. so everyone just jumped right in, cleaning pomegrantes, shelling beans and popping favas, pounding baba ghanoush and rolling pita, stuffing spanakopita, grating beets, washing lettuces, making the dressing, and cleaning tomatoes and artichokes.

so many of my friends are "city folk" and probably had no clue why i keep on yammering on about this farm, and these people who live there. but it's pretty much my favorite place in the world, and i think it's apparent why to everyone the second they arrive. like deeann said, the universe gave us a perfect autumn day, and it really was incredible.

the other thing is that all of my friends are so, so, so different--different ages and backgrounds, different places in their lives, different ways we met. people who normally would never be seated at tables together came together on this day, and helped out, laughed and told stories, were generous and kind, and shared a bit of beauty with me and each other. friends from restaurants, and college, the j-school, italy, high school, people i met that day--it was all just wonderful.

i promise that's all. no more gushing. thanks to everyone who came and shared this day with me. i won't ever forget it.

for my parents and distant friends....


the farmhouse



deeann and glasses



olives



looking toward the ridge



rolling spanakopita



juj with spanakopita



ready to roll the pita



rolling pita



fried broccoli and artichokes



grilling eggplant



pounding the baba ghanoush



plating the tahchin



tahchin



salad and bean ragu



time to eat



at the table



kids at the piano



ross churning ice cream



tres with the pinata (for whom he cried)



zoe!

a little linkage




if you live in london, or visit, check out violet cakes at the broadway market--taking the city by storm.

i definitely laughed out loud more than once when i read
this column by a striking comedy writer the other day. so funny.

i really liked what april wrote about hippies yesterday--it's so true. i have to stop myself from going to that place a lot. it's just so easy to judge people and be superior about things. ugh. one of my friends this week called me crunchy, and i suppose that compared to some people, i am, but really, i just want to take care of myself, and the earth, and the people i love. and i hope that others do, too.

i have mixed feelings about "going green." i guess it just seems like an oxymoron, buying a whole bunch of new stuff and throwing out all of your old stuff in an effort to be more environmentally friendly. there's "green fashion," which i find to be kind of ridiculous. i mean, if you were truly "green" then wouldn't you spend all of the time, money and energy on something like figuring out how to make ocean water potable or something, instead of clothes made out of haute couture scraps in some industrial factory with slave labor?

there's a new "green gift shop" in the elmwood, and it kind of freaks me out and intrigues me at the same time. it's beautifully curated, and a lot of the merchandise seems to be made out of something else that was at one point trash. it's just that cashing in on "saving the environment" seems so wrong to me (all of these quotation marks are making me think of that "blog" of "unnecessary" quotation marks).

i started to get the willies a while ago about all of my soaps and lotions and things, and i've been trying to switch over to more natural alternatives as i've been using up the old stuff. i've been having major difficulty letting go of the good old tide with bleach, though, since i manage to get all of my clothes so smelly and dirty at work. but i think i may have found an alternative: vaska. julia, the lady who came up with the formula, does some textile work for us at the restaurant. and, she's been partnering up with abc diaper service for the past year or two to test her detergent. i say, if it gets poop out, it can get my damage out. i bought vaska at monterey market, but you can also get it online.

i kind of also love the way dryer sheets make my clothes smell, but i have made a pact with myself to switch over to nellie's dryer balls when i use up the last of the bounce.

the other thing i use copious amounts of with my laundry is oxi-brite/oxi-clean. it's basically just hydrogen peroxide in powder form, but i am superstitious about it. i feel like everything just gets so much cleaner. and it is definitely a lot gentler than bleach, especially for my precious chef coats.

okay, enough preaching. and don't worry, i'm working my way through my thoughts and photos from sunday--i just want to do it all justice before i really write about it.


i think that yesterday was pretty much the best day of my life. thank you so much to everyone for coming, cooking, taking photos, helping, and being part of something wonderful.

if anyone has special photos, i'd love to see them (especially one of me ringing the dinner bell!). please, please upload photos to flickr or email them to me--i want to get an album and moo cards made.

(jen's hands)


some days are just perfect.

today was one of them (except for my tah-chin, which wasn't nearly as good as my mother's).

there were a lot of great moments, and perhaps i'll be able to revisit some of them tomorrow, but here's one to tide us over for now:

i don't think my friend's awesome mom, barbara, knew exactly whose farm she was coming to, and i was shocked/impressed by her willingness to just jump in and offer to fry up a box of artichokes bob had picked for us today, since she's not a professional cook. she was a little worried when i kind of forced her to put rose in her batter when i couldn't find any white wine, but i told her to go with it.

she cleaned, turned and choked those little suckers, battered and fried them, and gave one to charlene to taste. charlene told her they were really delicious, and walked away to do something else. i told barbara, you know that's a really huge compliment coming from charlene, and she asked why. i said, well, she's probably one of the top five cooks who ever walked through the doors of cp. barbara gave me a look, and said, she worked at cp? i said yeah, she's one of the best. she responded, well, i'm glad i didn't know that before i volunteered to cook this.



i don't know if i've ever written about the extent of my love for dutch chocolate sprinkles here, but i don't think so. i wish i could express my feelings with words, but it's not possible.

and the fact that they eat them in the netherlands for breakfast, on toast? makes me think i might be part dutch.

there are also different varieties, like forest fruits, and dark chocolate curls. you can find them all at this incredible website.


today i had the pleasure of meeting miss hazel mary camp for the very first time. isn't she lovely?

she was born yesterday to a very happy mama and papa. i asked them if she couldn't have waited one day, so that we could share a birthday. sheesh.

i also got my cast off. back to the wrist brace, for another six weeks or so.

, originally uploaded by candeola.



i've been talking a lot about cheese, as you know, and was telling the cooks about jean d'alos and affineurs last week. clee got excited and joined in, and we had a nice talk about comte.

last night, i went in for dinner with my friends and their mama, visiting from out of town. at the end of the meal (which was really very good--i found nothing to complain about, which is rare), the server told me that the cooks had a gift for me.

i was skeptical.

we went in the kitchen, and they pulled out a cheeseboard with a little clay pot on it. inside, ever so gently dressed in cheesecloth, was a baby cowsmilk cheese, waiting for my affinage. they made me a cheese. i can't believe it.

now, i get to decide what i want to treat it with.

..........

also about cheese: this article in today's nyt, which could almost belong in the nyer (especially the part about the four year old).