August 19th, 2010

There are tons of books that just arrived here at The Urban Craft Center! Books on how to knit animals & toys for kids, simple projects for you and your children that encourage imagination, green sewing ideas, vintage clothes reconstruction etc. We got a few specialty cook books with subjects like canning, cake decorating, chocolate making with nuts and fruits, candy making, booze cakes (yes I said booze cakes) and a couple of my favorites I wrote about below…

My obsession is with the classic Thai soup, Tom Kah Kai, (I prefer tofu substituted for chicken) a spicy coconut soup with lemongrass and more. The unique flavors of the soup have let me to an obsession with all things coconut. Coconut ice cream, coconut lime cupcakes, young coconuts that I crack open myself with a cleaver, etc. The book “The Ciao Bella Book of Gelato & Sorbetto” has an amazing recipe for coconut lemongrass sorbetto that I tried out last week. The creaminess of the coconut balanced with the light herbal citrus flavor of lemongrass was such a tasty treat! There are hundreds of other recipes to choose from like green tea gelato, Mexican chocolate gelato, pomegranate champagne sorbetto, blood orange sorbetto, and maple gingersnap gelato, just to name a few of my favs. You can even make your own simple syrup, which turns out to be just sugar and water heated up! With all the food science that is often present in manufactured ice cream, it really feels good to know exactly what is in your frozen treats.

Another foodie book we got in is “Porch Parties, Cocktail Recipes and Easy Ideas for Outdoor Entertaining.” This book has over 50 recipes for simple cocktails, as well as non-alcoholic drinks, many of which use blended fresh fruit sure to gussy up any party or get-together. There is so much inspiration here, including simple classics like an Arnold Palmer (lemonade and Iced Tea) and recipes I would never think to make and already love like Hibiscus punch or Agua Fresca de Honeydew. These recipes pair perfectly in glass serving pitchers with spigot tops, topped with thinly sliced fresh lemon. These serving pitchers are fun to find at flea markets and some of them are really fancy, tall, vintage apothecary jars with glass etching and pedestals. To balance out all these indulgent drinks, the book also includes a section of hors d’oeuvres like cherry tomatoes filled with jalapeno pimiento cheese goodness, baby crab cakes w/ lemon garlic aioli and fig and walnut brie.

Friends are always impressed with new things I cook, but I honestly feel like I’m cheating a little, because I’m just following steps from my cookbook! There’s something exciting about cooking a new tasty recipe that makes the energy in the house a little more lively, a little less boring,

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