News & Notes

First, if you haven't seen the "The 10 Types of Foodies" slideshow on the HuffPo, get over there immediately. It's hilarious. Your intrepid Food Labbers definitely fall in the "Made It Myself!" and "DIY" categories. Where do you fall?

Second, when's the next lab? We'll be doing a mini-lab this weekend of pate a choux at Mad Kitchen Scientist and The Executive Committee's New Year's Eve party. Gougeres for everyone!

We did have a full Lab planned for December 18, but due to some schedule conflicts, it had to be postponed until after the New Year. Topic? Well, here's a hint: it's a "part 2" of an earlier lab, and it's apropos we'll be doing it during football season (well, OK, post-season).

I've done a few more rounds of homemade croissants since our butter dough lab of last fall, always sticking with Julia's recipe from MtAoFC. This last time, I tried my first shot at chocolate-filled. Rather than trying to get the chocolate to stay in the traditional crescent shaped rolls, I went with rectangles, so I could seal them securely. They were good, particularly when they were still warm, but they needed *more* chocolate inside. Next time. That's them in the photo.

Chef Spouse's dad sent him the first Cook's Illustrated cookbook for Christmas (I'd already gotten him The New Best Recipe cookbook), and it has a different take on croissants that I'm looking forward to trying soon. Definitely need to do it while we still have some of the Julia recipe croissants in the freezer for taste testing.

Speaking of Chef Spouse, one of the gifts he gave me this year was 12 coupons for "Honey, I'd like you to try this recipe...". He's been feeling a little bored with his cooking, so be on the lookout for some hijinks.

Also speaking of Chef Spouse, I have a rule about New Year's resolutions that they have to be something fun. He's enjoyed tagging along on some of them (trapeze lessons, getting our motorcycle licenses, sky diving, etc.), but he's never done it himself. This year, he's joining the party. His resolution? To take a serious cooking class, potentially one of the CIA boot camps or something at L'Academie de Cuisine (which has the advantage of being local). Assuming he goes through with it, I'm going to MAKE him write about it for this blog, because that would be too awesome not to document.