NC MADE

Cross Creek Box

featuring Farmer's Daughter Brand Preserves, Copper Pot and Wooden Spoon Pickles, and Mt Olive First United Methodist Church Blister Fried Peanuts

$39 from NC MADE

NC MADE are these totally awesome thoughtfully curated beautifully packaged gift boxes stuffed full of handcrafted NC-made edibles. The company was recently launched by my new friend Nicole Bogas who has traveled all over the great state of North Carolina sampling and selecting each product that goes into her brown paper packages tied up with string. YES! You heard it right! There is brown paper and string involved! They include all sorts of delectable snacks and fancy drink mixers, and right now she has four different gift sets to pick from at various price points, so you're sure to find something for anyone in your life who deserves a nice present. Which is pretty much everyone you know, right? Yeah, I thought so. Check out www.ncmade.net for some seriously tasty treats. 

A closer look inside the Cross Creek Box

Plank Road Box

featuring Cloister Honey, Ritchie Hill Bakery Cheese Straws, Big Spoon Roasters Peanut Butter, Farmer's Daughter Brand Preserves, and Copper Pot and Wooden Spoon Pickles

$59 from NC MADE

Inside the Longleaf Box

featuring Hickory Nut Gap Farm Milano Salami, Crooked Condiments Autumn Night Apple Butter, Blue Blaze and Soda Syrup Co. Honey Ginger Ale Soda Syrup, Num Num Southern Grilling Sauce, Big Spoon Roasters Peanut Pecan Butter, and Ritchie Hill Bakery Cheese Straws

$79 from NC MADE

Old North State Cocktail Box

featuring White Whale Cocktail Mixer, Crude Rizzo Bitters, Blue Blaze and Soda Syrup Co. Honey Ginger Ale Soda Syrup, Hickory Nut Gap Farm Milano Salami, and Mt Olive First United Methodist Church Blister Fried Peanuts

$79 from NC MADE

- Cathleen

Artwork of the Week: In-N-Out Burger

In-N-Out Burger (Painting Internet Images Digital), 2014 by Ibon Mainar 

This painting is a slick, greasy reminder of last night's wonderfully glutenous Superbowl 

party that my stomach is still recovering from.

You can see more examples of the artist's work on his website: mainart.tumblr.com 

- Cathleen

Slow Wood

I have a thing for sandwiches. And play food. And wooden toys. This wooden Dagwood-style sandwich stacking toy fills all of my bills. 

Sadly it's only in the prototype stage from Studio Fludd, but you can best bet that when this  hardwood hero goes into mass production, I'll be ordering one of my own. Check, please!

- Cathleen 

[All images courtesy of studiofludd.com]

The Revenge of Tricky Treats!

This past weekend we hosted our Fifth Annual Halloween Horrorfest so I decided to throw down on the tricky treats spread again, but this time actually TAKE PHOTOS of the gross-looking/good-tasting food we made before our guests completely decimated the blood-curdling buffet. I used the original line-up from a couple of years ago as my guide, but added a few new gruesome characters to liven things up a bit. I left the naming rights to Micky this year, and some of the place cards definitely got a chuckle out of our friends. Feast your eyeballs!

Braaaaains!

(cheese ball "brain" with Triscuits and Wheat Thins)

[Cheese ball was made from a combination of this recipe and this recipe from Martha.]

Chips & Barf

(little jack-o-lantern spewing forth guacamole with tortilla chips)

Human Vegetables

(the usual suspects: carrots, celery, broccoli, ranch dip and hummus)

Disembodied Mouths 

(apple slices, caramel spread, and mini marshmallow "teeth") 

Kitty Litter Cake

(yellow cake, chocolate frosting, crumbled Golden Oreos and Tootsie Roll "cat turds") 

[Inspired by this recipe.]

Baby Fingers

(Lit'l Smokies wrapped up in crescent roll dough with sliced almond "fingernails" plus ketchup and mustard)

Crapple Sin-amon Muffins

(Apple Cinnamon Muffins whipped up by our gracious co-host Neal Block) 

Breaky Bones

(expertly decorated skeleton cookies made by the beautiful and talented Shannon McKeon) 

Wishing you all a devilishly delicious Halloween this year! 

- Cathleen 

New Mama Care Package

When I was just home from the hospital and friends started coming over to see us and meet the new baby, we received so many thoughtful presents. One of the best things people brought was definitely FOOD. There is something so meaningful about the gift of sustenance, made with love to give you strength in those first few days, something easy that you can just put in your tired face when your hands are too full of squirmy baby to do much beyond microwave. 

Through the miracle of Facebook, I recently reconnected with someone I worked with YEARS ago who now happens to live near me in NC and just had a baby herself, so I felt it was time I returned the favor that so many others helpfully granted me. Last night I whipped up a big batch of Lasagna Soup to bring over to her today (the very same that I made in advance of Graham's arrival), with all parts labeled for easy assembly and reheating. I also got her a couple bars of nice chocolate as well as a book for her baby because chocolate and books always make the best gifts. 

I can't wait to see her again and meet little baby Juniper for the first time! 

- Cathleen 

Artwork of the Week: Onion

Onion print by Ryo Takemasa

8.3" x 11.7", $30.41 via Etsy

I've been really attracted to food illustrations lately (ok, always), and this onion print by Japanese illustrator Ryo Takemasa recently caught my eye. I especially love the mottled, papery texture of the onion skins, lightening in color as each layer is peeled back. His tuna slice is also rather pretty. It sort of reminds me of Eric Carle's work. You can see more of Takemasa's work in his Etsy shop or on his personal website ryotakemasa.com.

- Cathleen 

This Is Not a Food Blog

But it is a place where I like to share my favorite things. And one of my favorite things as of late is spending the good part of a Sunday making (and eating) granola. I found a recipe for "healthy granola" online awhile back and have modified it somewhat to suit my own tastes and needs. It's super easy to make; just dump ingredients in bowl, stir, toast, and eat. But it can be a bit labor intensive with all the mixing and round after round of brown time in the oven. But that sweet smell! That golden taste! Yes, it actually TASTES golden. Makes it all worthwhile. I would eat it with low fat vanilla yogurt and frozen berries or mango or pineapple pretty much every day if I could. Which means I tend to tear through it pretty quickly. Below I present my recipe for one batch of healthy granola that I recommend you double because you cannot STOP yourself or others from putting it on everything or eating it straight out tha container. Enjoy!

DRY INGREDIENTS:
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup raw sliced almonds (or whole, roughly chopped)
1 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar*
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

WET INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/3 cup honey
1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients in large mixing bowl and stir until evenly mixed. Then combine all wet ingredients in separate bowl and slowly pour the wet mixture incrementally into the dry ingredients in the large mixing bowl, constantly stirring until thoroughly mixed.

Spread mixture onto rimmed baking sheets in an even (not too thick) layer and bake for about 45 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes, until golden brown and well toasted. After you remove pans from oven when you have reached desired level of golden deliciousness, push granola around with a spatula a bit so that it doesn't become one giant hard granola bar as it cools. Once cool, store in airtight containers and enjoy for days to come!

*When doubling recipe, there's no need to double the sugar if you want to cut back on calories. It's pretty sweet as is.

- Cathleen

Tricky Treats!

As the Halloween season approaches, my thoughts often turn not to clever costume ideas that involve me wearing facial hair in some capacity, but to the creepy treats I can serve to costumed party-goers. Let’s face it. Nobody’s REALLY fooled into thinking they’re about to eat a handful of curiously pretzel-shaped “skeleton bones” when you put out a bowl of white chocolate Flipz, but just go with it, ok?

This year I’ve decided to up my game, plan ahead, and make sure I cover all of the major Halloween party food groups:

Fingers in a Bandage = Franks in Blanks w/ Slivered Almond “Fingernails”
*with Blood (Ketchup) and Puss (Mustard) for dipping!

Goblin Eyeballs = Deviled Eggs
* green food coloring will make those eyeballs really ghoulish!

BRAINS!! = Brain-Shaped Cheese Ball
*add a little pink food coloring for optimum effect and serve with Tris-CUTS, of course!

Dead Roaches = Dates Stuffed w/ Goat Cheese & Pecans

Jack-o-Vomit = Guacamole Spewed Forth from a Carved Pumpkin
*with a side or TORTURE-tilla chips, obviously!

Mush Mouths = Apple Slices w/ Caramel Cheesecake Spread & Marshmallow Teeth
*hmm…red lips or green? Which are Halloween-ier?

And if I get REALLY ambitious:
A Giant Pumpkin-Shaped Carrot and Veggie Dip Platter
*probably requires the least amount of effort, is the most festive, but is definitely not trick-y enough.

This one is for when Micky and I throw our future children one of those totally awesome Halloween parties that I remember from my youth, where kids bobbed for apples and blind-folded-ly felt their way through big bowls of cold spaghetti “worms” and peeled grape “eyeballs.” Ahhh. Those really were the days:  

Kitty Litter Cake !!

Made with regular chocolate cake mix, ground up Golden Oreos, and Tootsie Rolls for the most authentic litter look, I'm not sure anyone could actually overcome the visual and have a scoop, but it would definitely be the ultimate gross-out treat for such an occasion. Bon Appétit!


- Cathleen 

Artist of the Week: Jennifer Rubell

A felled apple tree for dessert. 

Jennifer Rubell creates smorgasbords in the name of art. For a Brooklyn Museum gala in 2010, Rubell presented a participatory exhibition called “Icons” where she laid out a pile of golden potato chips and unmarked paint tubes filled with various dips on two wooden pedestals. Nearby heat guns melted cheese heads that hung from the ceiling and dripped over stacks of crackers arranged on a platform below.

[First four photos by John Berens and Kevin Tachman from artist's website.]

For one of the annual breakfasts held at her parents’ home during Art Basel in Miami, she presented droves of hungry art-eaters with a perfect brunch trifecta: 2,000 hard-boiled eggs, pieces of bacon, and croissants. There was even a nearby table literally jam-packed with various jelly jars (ha!), each with a spoon inside, ready to spread ‘em.

One of the most sophisticated little ladies I’ve ever seen, croissant aloft, teaspoon poised.
[Photo from artist's website.]

A truly perfect food. Photo found on c-monster.net 

Her food installations are an inventive way of satisfying the most basic need of the masses on a grand scale. These banquets have a humor, and yet there’s also something very sensual about them. Having never attended one of her grand dinner parties myself, I can only imagine the sights, the smells, the taste. 

Jennifer is slated to participate in this year’s Performa 11, a biennial of performance art that will take place in New York this November. I’ve already marked my calendar, so hopefully I’ll get the chance to experience one of these feasts in the flesh. I love all-you-can-eat buffets.

http://jenniferrubell.com/

- Cathleen