The other day I ran into Gordon Ramsay at Macys. Well…I didn’t exactly run into him but I did spend a little time looking over the new kitchen products he’s hawking. I quickly realized that the collection consisted of lots of boring white ribbed style bakeware. Very ho-hum. You’d think Gordon Ramsay would wow a girl with some pottery flare. I expect this sort of thing from Ina Garten but not the screaming meanie himself. Martha Stewart’s colorful pastels in the next aisle lured me away in record time.

I have a fascination with fry bread. It was brought about in college when my favorite professor, MKJ, had us read The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Ever since I’ve always wanted to try it, make it, and of course, eat it. You should check out Clint’s attempt at recreating traditional Native American Fry Bread. I think it looks pretty amazing. I may have to whip up a batch of my own and have a private viewing of Smoke Signals to celebrate.

Everyone’s favorite hostess with the mostess, Padma Lakshmi, is coming out with her second cookbook this fall. It’s titled Tangy, Tart, Hot and Sweet: A World of Recipes for Every Day. Tangy, Tart, Hot, and Sweet…sounds like appropriate nicknames for a Spice Girls cover band. Now go add it to your wishlist….NOW!

And finally, Football season is fast approaching. The Patriots opening day is September 9th versus The New York Jets and I’ve just found the perfect cake pan for a Sunday of beer, nachos, and HD fun. I wonder if they sell little decorative player figures? If they do I’ll make sure to buy Tom Brady and Tedy Bruschi, and then I’ll get a Peyton Manning candy and promptly bite his head off.

I purchased Amy Sedaris’s book last December and like most of my cookbooks, glanced at it once, had a good chuckle and never took it off the shelf again. That is until last week. I was craving junk food. Something quick, chocolate, and not cookies. I stood in front of the baker’s rack staring at my cookbooks until Amy’s jumped out at me. I knew she would have fabulous ooey gooey junk food recipes.

The word brownie popped out at me from the pages and I was officially a goner. Minimal instructions and minimal ingredients were exactly what I needed. Perhaps too minimal instructions since I ended up baking the brownies in a 9 inch pan. It really didn’t look like that much batter so I figured it would be fine. In addition, since that little accident a few weeks ago I’ve yet to purchase a new, more appropriately sized glass baking dish and the 9 by 13 seemed as though it would be too big.

I ended up with fluffy brownies that were 3 inches thick. They were amazing, and every time I ate one I ended up with a glutton fueled stomach ache. But that didn’t stop Chris and I from munching on them for several days until they were completely gone. It probably didn’t help that we topped them with Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream. Oh well. That’s why we work out, or at least, that’s what I tell myself.

PS: The gigantic 72 ounce bag of chocolate chips in the images below is from my new best friend Costco. They have tons of great bulk baking supplies. Definitely check it out sometime if you have the cupboard space. Personally, I make room for chocolate chips.

Aunt Joyce’s Brownies (Originally published in I Like You: Hospitality Under the Influence by Amy Sedaris)

4 eggs beaten until fluffy
1 C sugar
1 C flour, sifted
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 12-oz package chocolate chips
2/3 C unsalted butter
2 tsp. vanilla extract

Melt together chips and butter. Beat eggs and add in everything else. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Optional: Press pecans on top, down into dough.

Consultation With Amy	Break Out the Big Guns
Melt Bits and Butter	Beat the Eggs
Combine and Bake	And Now…the Bellyache

One of my favorite places to buy loose leaf tea and accompanying accessories is Tealuxe. My boyfriend discovered Tealuxe a few months prior to our move back to Boston. Since then I’ve purchased items from their online store as well as in person at their Harvard Square location, and I’m totally smitten. We’re tea drinking fiends these days. Currently on hand in our kitchen are the following tantalizing flavors: Moroccan Mint, Orange Echinacea, Royal Coconut, Raspberry Earl Grey, Apple Pie, White Blueberry, and the piece de resistance: Lady Londonderry (which is my new personal favorite and supposedly the favorite of the late Princess Diana as well). Lady Londonderry is a black tea with hints of lemon and strawberry. Are you drooling yet?

In addition to the location in Harvard Square, there are also Tealuxe stores on Newbury Street, as well as in Providence, Rhode Island. According to the website new franchises will also be opening soon in Tampa Florida, Tempe Arizona, and also on Long Island.

If all of the amazing and varied choices at Tealuxe have left you feeling overwhelmed and confused you can also utilize their helpful web resources to find a tea that’s right for you. These resources include a best selling tea list, a short quiz that offers tea recommendations after you answer a few succinct questions, and even a comprehensive detail of all available teas broken down by category (mint, herbal, relaxing, spicy etc…).

This Fall, Tealuxe will offer a Tea 101 Class at the Newbury Street location. For $25 you’ll receive education on the history of tea, a tea tasting, information on the health benefits of tea, a question and answer session, and tea samples to take home and enjoy on your own. For more information, including dates and times, you can email the Tea Academy or call the Newbury Street location at 617.927.0400. Sounds like a “tea-riffic” time to me!

(Originally posted on the Well Fed Network’s blog A Nice Cuppa)

After a marathon shopping trip yesterday afternoon with CK, I left the mall heavily loaded down with bags. The hot sun of the parking lot and the sight of a Cheesecake Factory mere steps away made me long for a mojito. The first mojito I ever had was at The Cheesecake Factory and it was a thing of beauty. Since then I’ve had equally amazing mojitos and some seriously terrible ones. The terrible ones usually seem to forgo the all important step of using simple syrup in the drink construction.

As CK and I wandered around the lot looking for our car I petulantly expressed my mint fueled longing. He quickly jumped at the idea, but suggested that we buy our own mojito ingredients instead of braving the ridiculous crowds at the restaurant. So after a haphazard trip to Whole Foods and the liquor store, where the iPhone was consulted not once, not twice, but three times to make sure we had purchased all of the correct ingredients, we were ready to mix some cocktails. I actually almost botched the whole experiment by forgetting that there are limes in the drink. Obviously too much time at the mall sucks the intelligence right out of me.

Our friend Anna joined us for the occasion and we had an interesting impromptu dance party in the kitchen while watching the Bacardi Mojito demonstration online. It was truly a group effort and the drinks came out perfectly.  Personally I think the dancing helped. I honestly can’t think of anything better to have on a hot summer night than a large cold glass of minty rum. Summer will be over soon. it’s time to get your mojito on!

Bacardi Mojito

12 fresh spearmint leaves
1/2 lime
2 tablespoons simple syrup (equal amounts sugar and water heated until sugar dissolves, cooled)
Ice
1 1/2 ounces light rum (recommended: Bacardi)
Club soda
Lime wedge and mint sprig, for garnish

In a tall glass, muddle or mash together the mint leaves and lime. Add the simple syrup or sugar and fill the glass with ice. Add the rum and top with club soda, stir well. Garnish with a lime wedge and a sprig of mint.

Shop	CK’s Simple Syrup
Slice	Anna Muddles
Ice	Refreshed

I’ve been sick in bed with a nasty head cold all day but when I saw this post on BBC News it totally cheered me up. It appears Jamie Oliver is shopping around a whimsical cartoon that portrays himself as a curious 10-year-old wannabe chef who is thwarted in his kitchen endeavors by the evil Eggs Benedict. Joining Jamie in his colorful culinary adventures will also be Nonna (a kitchen Obi-Wan Kenobi type) and a depressed ham. No word yet on what the ham will be known by, but might I suggest they refrain from “Hamlet.” Seriously though, sign me up! I have to see this. And now I have yet another reason to be jealous of the BBC.

Say it isn’t so?! There have been rumors and grumblings for months and months as to whether or not the adorable Dave Lieberman would be continuing his stint on the Food Network. Unfortunately it appears that a definite decision has been made. Dave’s “all grown up now ” and has cut the Food Network apron strings in favor of new opportunities and the possibility of opening his own restaurant in L.A. Honestly, with the departure of Dave from the Food Network there just isn’t any male eye candy left and I’m certainly not going to have a celebrity chef crush on Bobby Flay or (God forbid) Guy Fieri.

My subscription to Blueprint magazine finally managed to catch-up with me after the big move and I thoroughly enjoyed thumbing through it yesterday morning while enjoying my breakfast of delicious coffee and leftover gingerbread. As I’ve previously mentioned I really love making risotto. Yes, the stirring can be laborious, but it’s a dish that you inevitably feel extremely accomplished about feeding to guests when you’re through. So I’m a little skeptical about a shortcut risotto product Blueprint endorses this month that claims “its texture and flavor match those of made-from-scratch versions.” Apparently very little stirring is required and you finish the risotto with a sprinkle of salt and freshly grated cheese. The risotto takes a total of 18 minutes to make, to which I have to say, add 10 more minutes to your prep time and a little elbow grease and you can have the real honest-to-goodness thing.

Blueprint wasn’t completely off the mark this month. They did introduce a new cooking column called “The Kitchen” where they hope to educate readers with a series of “go-to” dishes that you can master and then pass off as your own. In the first article they have a really beautiful lesson on making a classic lasagna. It’s not my kind of lasagna (I don’t put meat in my sauce) but I really like the idea behind the column and I’m looking forward to seeing what recipe the editors will breakdown next. Unfortunately, the Blueprint website hasn’t been updated with content from the September/October issue yet so you may have to go out and buy your own copy in order to get the whole scoop.

The slow cooker hype has been waxing and waning for several years at this point and I still haven’t purchased a proper crock pot. However, I think I may have finally met my perfect time-saving match. I’m currently lusting over this All-Clad version on the Williams-Sonoma website. Like all All-Clad products it’s quite the thing of beauty. Friends and family please take note…the holidays are just around the corner after all.