Lara Ferroni's Blog

I was sitting in Cusco, Peru when I happened upon a mail from my friend Anita asking if I’d be interested in helping out with a promotion she was running for one of her clients by doing a blog post on what makes the moment for me at the holidays. I was sitting in Cusco because in a moment of spontaneity (and perhaps a few cocktails) last March, Cameron and I had booked ourselves on an Inca Trail hike to Machu Picchu. It seemed like a good idea at the time… something to motivate us to get out and exercise over the summer, and a nice little break before the big push that always happens for Cam around the holidays at The Clymb. A couple of months later, I studied the itinerary, had a mild panic attack at the size of the climbs, and started getting serious about training.

I told Anita I’d be happy to contribute. It was good to have a little push to get me to blog again… it has been too long. But, as I was sitting there, reading Anita’s mail, the holidays weren’t really on my mind. What was on my mind was how the heck I was going to make it up the terrifying “Day 2” of our itinerary: 10 miles of trekking, hiking over two passes that reached almost 14,000 feet. Especially because within hours of landing in Cusco at it’s 11,000+ feet above sea level, I was stuck in the bathroom losing what little lunch I was able to eat. Sorry for the TMI. High altitude and I no longer seem to get along. Thoughts raced through my mind of how I was going to not ruin Cam’s trip. The first Diamox tablet didn’t stay down. I curled up in bed, and Cam brought me chicken soup and toast. I looked at it and ran back to the bathroom.

The second Diamox managed to stay put, and a few hours later, my stomach began to settle. My second day in Cusco, I managed to go outside and read my book while sitting in the sun for a few hours. I even managed eat a few bites at dinner. The third day, we took a tour of the Sacred Valley, and I hiked up a few Inca steps. With more hope than confidence, I boarded the bus the next day to being the trek. It was certainly not what I had planned or been training all summer for.

Four days later, I looked down at Machu Picchu drenched in gorgeous light. I might been the slowest hiker on our trek (go Team Tortuga!), but each step was totally worth it. It certainly wasn’t the trip I had planned, but the struggle made the summits all the sweeter. And I realized exactly what makes a memorable moment for me at the holidays, or really, anytime. It’s the story that comes from the unexpected: When things don’t necessarily go as planned; when I push myself to do things I’m not sure I can do; when I take a risk to see what happens.

Most of my best holiday memories were entirely unanticipated. An impromptu shopping spree resulting in my favorite boots when our luggage didn’t arrive. A turkey in a tent while trekking up Kilimanjaro. Skiing down our street during a rare Seattle snowpocalypse that delayed most of our holiday festivities. I love a happy accident.

To celebrate, how about a cocktail that is the epitome of unexpected. I’m kind of crazy about this orange, fennel and olive cocktail. You’ve probably had the flavor combination before in a salad (if not, then definitely give it a try!). It’s even more amazing as a cocktail. It’s fresh and bright from the citrus and fennel, and buttery from the olives; it’s sweet but not cloying. Flaky salt brings the whole thing together.

Thanks Anita for including me in this promo!

Want a chance to win prizes by sharing what makes your moments special? Just tag your moment tweet or Instagram with the #LindsayMoment hashtag from now until 12/22. See the Lindsay Olive page for more details.

This post is part of the Lindsay Olive Flavor Makes the Moment fall/holiday promotion.

“OOF” Cocktail

The flavor of the olives you use for this cocktail are critical to it working. Be sure that you like the flavor before you use them. I recommend fruity/buttery green olives such as California Green Olives or Correggiolas.

Flakey salt for garnish

1 1/2 ounce vodka

the juice from 2 oranges (3 ounces)

1 teaspoon fennel syrup (see below)

1 teaspoon high quality, fruity olive oil, plus a little more for garnish

1 fruity/buttery green olive, for garnish

1 small fennel frond for garnish

Brush a small section of the rim of a cocktail glass with a bit of orange juice, and dip into flake salt.

Shake the vodka, orange juice, fennel syrup, 1 teaspoon of olive oil over ice, and strain into a cocktail glass. Dot a few drops of olive oil.

Garnish with an olive and a small piece of fennel frond.

Fennel Syrup

1 tablespoon fennel seeds

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

3/4 cup sugar

1 cup water

a large pinch of salt

Use a mortar and pestle to lightly crush the seeds, and add them to a pot with the water, sugar and salt. Bring to a boil, then remove from the heat and let sit for 30 minutes. Strain the seeds from the syrup and store the syrup in an airtight container for up to one month.

The post The Unexpected Makes the Moment Memorable appeared first on Lara Ferroni.

Well folks, it’s been so long since I’ve posted here that:

A. My not-so-new laptop didn’t have my blog editor installed.

B. It took quite a few times for me to remember my user login

C. I couldn’t remember how to connect my blog editor to my blog.

Obviously, I figured it all out.

I hate that I’ve been gone from here for basically the past year, but that’s only because I love what I’ve been doing, and let me tell you, I’ve been doing a lot.

In case you are short on time, let me get to the point.

A year ago February, amidst a pretty full-time job of shooting photos for cookbooks and magazines, I decided to get back into the software game. Don’t get me wrong… I still love food photography and writing. But in the 8 years I had been away from the tech world, I found I really missed it. Yeah, I’m weird that way.

A couple of my buddies were starting a software company, Project 529 down in Portland, and I decided to join. We are all about software to for cyclists and helping people get outside and ride more. We’ve started by taking up a cause that effects over 250,000 people per year: bike theft. Did you know that every 30 seconds a bike is stolen? That’s just insane. I’m betting if you haven’t had a bike stolen, you probably know someone who has. And it probably really sucked.

 

We decided that instead of just complaining about it, we’d try to do something.

First up, we’re creating a movement to urge Craigslist and eBay to require serial numbers on all used bike sales. While this won’t stop all stolen bike trafficking, we see it as a huge first step in using technology to help bike owners rather than bike thieves.

 

I try not to ask for much on this site, but I will ask for this: Please take a few minutes to go and sign our petition, and tell your friends.

 

I’m also really excited to announced that a couple of weeks ago, we released a preview of the 529 Garage website and iPhone app. Either from the app or the website, you can quickly register all the critical details of your bike, like the serial number and the make and model, as well as capture a few good-to-have photos to help make identifying your bike easier. If your bike does go missing, it’s just a few clicks to print out custom poster and get it on our hot sheet which makes it easy for people to send tips if they think they’ve seen it. Both the website and app are free, so if you have a bike, be sure to register them!

The next phase of the app is even cooler. If your bike goes missing, you can send out a notification to everyone else in your area to be on the lookout for your bike and hopefully help you catch the thief. It’s making the most of the cycling community to fight a problem that effects all of us.

We just kicked off the app down in Monterey, CA at Sea Otter Classic, a huge cycling event that draws upwards of 65,000 visitors, and riders competing in just about any event that involves human power and two wheels… there were road races, a Gran Fondo, downhill mountain biking, dual slalom, pump tracks, cyclocross and more. It was really amazing hearing everyone’s stories about their bikes and seeing them get excited about the tools we are building.

Post Sea Otter, Cam and I took the slow route back up the coast in a camper van, stopping in a few spots to ride. It’s been months of few weekends that didn’t include 10 hour work days (except when we went to Antarctica… but that’s a whole other story!), so this was a welcome respite.

Being a startup, it’s not exactly a steady thing, so I’ve still been doing food photography as well.

 

In the last year, I finished up another indulgent cookbook of my own, , that comes out in June, as well as shooting a fantastic new cocktail cookbook from the awesome folks at Imbibe Magazine, , and a super-cool vegan desserts cookbook from Chocolate Covered Katie (http://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/). Hope you check them out when they hit shelves!

Should I start out by apologizing or explaining why it’s been oh, forever, since I was last here? We can skip all that right? You’ve been busy, I’ve been busy. It’s all good. Let’s just get to the good stuff, shall we?

And, by good stuff, I mean delicious things with eggs on them. Yep, as of this past Tuesday, my new book Put an Egg on It is hitting bookstore shelves (and of course is on Amazon). Can I tell you how much I love this book? Not once while developing the recipes did I think “man, am I sick of eggs.” Nope, if anything, this book made me love eggs even more, and if you’ve ever eaten out with me, you’d know that is hard to do. Here are a few of the outtakes:

The only problem with this book? I kept wanting to add to it. I just keep thinking of more and more things to put eggs on, wishing that I had included them in the book.

One of those thoughts was this one: Breakfast on a Baked Potato. How did I miss putting an egg on a baked potato?? It haunts me. That goodness for blogs.

Breakfast on a Baked Potato

Call it breakfast, call it breakfast for dinner, just call it something and give it a try.

1 baked potato

1/2 piece of bacon

a dollop of yogurt or sour cream

1 egg

1 green onion, light green part, chopped

flaked sea salt

Bake the potato with your preferred method. Here’s what I did, so it would be ready quickly for breakfast: Preheat your oven to 425F. While that’s heating, prick the potato all over with a fork and microwave it on high for 3 minutes. Flip it an microwave for another 2 minutes. Then, transfer it to the oven for about 5 minutes to crisp up the skin (you can just lay it on the oven rack).

While the potato is baking, fry the bacon, and chop into small pieces. Then, fry the egg. To fry the egg, I like to use a combination of olive oil and butter in a Greenpan.

Roll the unsliced potato around a little to mush up the insides, and then make a slice end to end on the top, without cutting through the whole potato. Use the knife to fluff the insides and drop on a dollop of yogurt or sour cream if you are using it. Top with the egg (I like sunny-sideup), and then sprinkle on the bacon, green onion and salt.

It’s a gorgeous mid-winter day today in Portland, and I took my Hasselblad 500C out to play. I’m still figuring out the whole waist-level viewer thing, but love the way this camera captures the light. Just a few shots to enjoy.

Can I just start with “Whew”. The last couple of months have been a whirlwind, but as the holidays start to settle in, I’m finding myself finally with a some time to myself. Yeah! So what do I do? Well, once I got the marathon couch/Netflix time out of my system, I find myself back in the studio doing what I do. No real surprise there.

What is a little surprising is that despite a myriad of holiday shoots (like this one, this one, and a bunch of these. I particularly loved these cookies) and feasting on the leftovers, I still seem to be thinking about holiday treats. Like these gingerbread meringues.

I blame the What Katie Ate cookbook, and it’s gorgeous chocolate meringue shot. Who isn’t inspired to make a batch of those? But instead of chocolate, I thought a little seasonal spice would be a nice touch.

My meringue recipe is a bit of a blend of the meringue from What Katie Ate and recipe inspired by Ottolenghi in The Guardian, which toasts the sugar slightly before adding it to the egg white. To get a real gingerbread flavor, I used a bit of molasses along with a blend of cane and coconut sugars (although you could just use regular sugar for both). The meringues take on a lovely tan color, even before adding the spices. I like to add a little cocoa powder just barely folded in to add a little more mottling to the meringues. Mine got a little crinkly as they baked, but they were still light and delicious!

These meringues are good as they are, but also tasty with a little ginger and powdered sugar mixture sprinkled on top.

Gingerbread Meringues

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon dried orange peel

200 grams cane sugar

50 grams coconut sugar

2 tablespoons molasses

1 teaspoon lemon juice  

5 egg whites

a pinch of salt

2 teaspoons unsweetened natural cocoa powder

Mix the ginger, cinnamon, cloves and orange peel together in a small bowl, making sure to break up any clumps.

Place the cane and coconut sugars on a parchment lined baking sheet, and cook for 8 minutes in a 375F oven. Reduce the heat to 250F.

Heat the molasses in the microwave for about 10 to 15 seconds until just warm… this will make them easier to pour.

Pour the lemon juice into the clean metal mixing bowl, and then wipe all around with a paper towel (this makes sure there are no residual oils in the bowl). Add the egg whites to the bowl. When there is only about 1 minute left of baking the sugar, start beating the egg whites on high speed. When the sugar is done, carefully remove it and pour it into the beating egg whites in a slow gradual stream (if you aren’t using a stand mixer, you’ll want a friend to help!) Drizzle in the molasses, and continue to beat until the mixture is glossy and holds a firm peak.

Fold in the spice until well blended, and then dust the top with sifted cocoa powder and fold only two or three times.

Line a two sheet pans with parchment, and drop large (a little less than a cup) dollops an inch or two apart. You’ll have 10 to 12 meringues, depending on how big you make them (of course, you can make more, small ones if you prefer). Bake for an hour and a half at 250F until they are firm to the touch, and then turn off the oven, leaving the meringues in for another two hours to cool and dry completely.

Wow, big news in the snack food world today, with Hostess Brands closing and selling off its assets. No more Twinkies or Ding Dongs or Hostess Cupcakes or Donettes. I’m both a little sad and a little not surprised by the whole thing. Sad because Hostess Brands’ products were such huge icons of childhood (even though we were mostly a Hostess Brands free house). Sad because Hostess Brands was a really big employer, and this means the end of a job for a lot of hard working people. Sad because what will we eat now when the zombie apocalypse comes?

But, also not surprised because despite the fact that people kind of get excited about it when you talk about Twinkies and Ding Dongs and Hostess Cupcakes and Donettes, I think most people are just not all that into eating that much junk.

Here’s what’s Wikipedia says is in a Twinkie:

Enriched wheat flour, sugar, corn syrup, niacin, water, high fructose corn syrup, vegetable and/or animal shortening – containing one or more of partially hydrogenated soybean, cottonseed and canola oil, and beef fat, dextrose, whole eggs, modified corn starch, cellulose gum, whey, leavenings (sodium acid pyrophosphate, baking soda, monocalcium phosphate), salt, cornstarch, corn flour, corn syrup, solids, mono and diglycerides, soy lecithin,polysorbate 60, dextrin, calcium caseinate, sodium stearoyl lactylate, wheat gluten, calcium sulphate, natural and artificial flavors, caramel color, yellow #5, red #40.[7]

Really, I think while most people may want to eat an occasional sugary treat, they are pretty much ok skipping the polysorbate 60 and petroleum based dyes.

I doubt that Hostess Brands products will be missing from the shelves anytime soon (Hostess Brands says that they were baking 500,000,000 Twinkies a year), but if you are like me and want to skip all the preservatives that help those snacks stay shelf stable long after the company will have gone out of business, you can always make your own. Real Snacks: Make Your Favorite Childhood Treats without all the Junk has my recreation of Twinkies, Ding Dong, Hostess Cupcakes and Donettes, as well as recipes for many other snacks (and they all have Gluten Free and Vegan options too) that taste great but skip the petroleum based dyes. You can also get my Twinkie recipe here, on Epicurious and my Donette recipe here, on A Well Seasoned Life.

So hang in there fellow snack lovers, and get baking!

It’s been a fun couple of weeks shooting recipes for a couple of different cookbooks, plus a whole Christmas dinner, not to mention testing a lot of new egg recipes! So much fun that I’ve nearly forgotten that my new cookbook, Real Snacks: Make Your Favorite Childhood Treats Without All the Junk, comes out soon. Really soon. Like next Tuesday soon! I’m so excited! I can’t wait to share it with you.

  

So, as a little sneak peak, I thought I’d share my Cheddar Goldfish recipe with you from the book. I love these fun little crackers… and they are delicious with Cheddar or any other firm cheese… try them with Jack or Gouda or any cheese you love. The better the cheese, the better the cracker!

Before I get to the cracker recipe, I have an announcement… the winner of Aran Goyoaga’s delightful book, Small Plates and Sweet Treats, is Jess O’Toole! (I’ll be in touch soon Jess!) Thanks everyone for your lovely Fall Favorite comments! They’ve put me completely in the fall mood, which is good since Portland seemed to skip the normal summer to fall transition and entered it full force last week. Welcome to rain and knit caps.

So, about those crackers. I made this particular batch of fishes with King Arthur’s gluten free all purpose flour mix, and it worked great. I’ve also tried them with Bob’s Red Mill, and they were also delicious… in fact, while for some recipes I prefer bean-free flour mixes, I like the flavor that a bit of garbanzo and fava bean bring to crackers. My favorite though is to make my own GF flour mix, when I need to. I like a mix of 100 grams sorghum or oat flour, 100 grams ground millet flour, 100 grams sweet rice starch, 100 grams tapioca starch, and 100 grams potato starch. If you make up a big batch, keep it in the freezer to keep it fresh, and just bring to room temperature before you bake with it. Many of these flours can go off if stored in the pantry.

Although I’m not gluten-free, I do have a lot of friends that are, or are vegan, so for Real Snacks, it was important to me to offer gluten free and vegan variations to the recipes.

Gluten Free Cheddar Goldfish

1/2 cup (60 grams) gluten free all purpose mix

1⁄4 cup (30 grams) corn flour

1⁄4 cup (30 grams) oat flour

a pinch of turmeric (optional, for color)

1⁄2 teaspoon salt

1 cup (2 ounces) grated loosely packed mild cheddar cheese

2 tablespoons coconut oil or unsalted butter

2 to 3 tablespoons hot water, divided

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment and set aside.

Combine the flours, turmeric and salt in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the dough blade and pulse to combine. Add the cheese and coconut oil, and pulse to incorporate. Scape down the sides of the food processor to free any trapped flour. With the food processor running, drizzle in the hot water, a little at a time, just until the mixture begins to pull together. You may not use all of the water.

Form the dough into a ball, and gently flatten. Place the dough between two pieces of parchment paper, and roll very thin, to about 1⁄8 inch thick.

Using a very small fish-shaped cutter, or the cutter of your choice, cut out the crackers and carefully place them on the prepared baking sheets. Bake, keeping a close eye on them, until golden around the edges, about 10 to 12 minutes, and cool before serving.

I couldn’t resist this pumpkin from the pile. I’ve never seen one so evenly covered! It’s like someone crocheted a pumpkin cozy for it.

This creamy and delicious garlic and saffron soup with curried shrimp by my friend Aran Goyoaga in her gorgeous book Small Plates and Sweet Treats. I want to make almost everything in this book! I’m trying out a bit of a restrictive diet, so I made a couple of changes to the soup, subbing in cauliflower and white beans for the potato and celery root, and it was fantastic, despite the fact that my saffron didn’t quite pump out the same vivid color as Aran’s. (Those curried shrimp? I scarfed down a dozen.) I love that this book has such creative flavor combinations that are spot on… but also very easy to adjust for your own tastes (or diet restrictions).

I’m happy to say also, I have a copy of the book to give-away! (I pre-ordered mine many months ago, but the publisher sent me an earlier copy as well). Want to win the copy? Leave a comment with some of your fall favorites and I’ll pick one comment as the winner on Friday. The winnner has been announced! Thanks for your comments!(Fine Print: Sorry, US shipping only for this give-away).

This Vietnamese Curried Chicken and Squash Stew from Jess Thomson’s Pike Place Market Cookbook, made miniature for a great little one pot, one person dinner. I subbed in carrots for the kabocha, since that’s what I had in the fridge. Mmmm… fish sauce and lemongrass. Delicious.

If you haven’t seen it yet, I do hope you check out this cookbook… Jess is one of the best food writers and recipe developers I know (and having worked with her on her upcoming book, Dishing Up Washington, I’ve tasted a LOT of her recipes), and this book is no exception.

So, what are your fall favorites?

[This is part 3 of our Thailand trip. You can read part one here and part two here]

After biking for 5 days, Cam and I headed out on a ferry to Koh Samui for a few days of complete slacking. Get up, hang by the pool until nap time kind of days. We stayed at the gorgeous Hansar Samui, right by the cute, although quite touristy, “fishing village ” of Bo Phut. I was so lazy, I didn’t even take any photos until the morning we left:

After a quick flight over to Phuket and a few hours drive north, we hopped on a little boat in Cheiow Laan Lake in the pouring rain and sped out, to one of the groups of raft houses. The surrounding limestone cliffs were hung with clouds, and although we were throughly soaked, the rain was warm and the experience so surreal we both had huge grins. Arriving at the raft houses, we sat down to a big meal, the rain cleared, and few found ourselves in one of the most beautiful spots I’ve ever seen.

On the morning of our last day, we went out for a boat ride to see some wildlife (although they were all fairly far from the boat, we saw gibbons and several different types of monkeys), and before pulling in, our guide, Yu, pulled the boat up to the bank to show us wild morning glory, and then started to harvest a huge armful which he brought back and had the kitchen make us for lunch. It was delicious.

If you ever get a chance to visit Koh Sok and Cheiow Laan lake, don’t miss it! It really is extraordinary.

[go to A Trip to Thailand, Part 1]

After Bangkok, we spent 4 days riding down the coast on bike with Grasshopper Adventures. I can’t say enough great about seeing a country by bike (especially when fully supported and with great local guides, ilke our guides Tammy, Anna and Mr. Wow!). We biked from 30 to 40 miles each day through little beach towns and farming communities. We stopped frequently, at little side of the road fruit markets, ornate temples, mangrove forests, shrimp sorting tables, fantastic Thai lunches, an aquarium filled with school children, rubber tree orchards, hungry monkeys, fish drying tables and coconut farms. It was hot riding (especially for those of us from the Northwest!). At one point, I stopped worrying about sunburn and started worrying that my muscles might be cooking like a chicken. Thank goodness for frequent rest breaks with the freshest pineapple and cold wet washcloths kept in the support van.

  

This was definitely more than I’ve ever ridden before, and although I was tired each day, I was also exhilarated. I was also ready for the beach… more on the rest of our trip.