Family Food/FFF #15

I am taking the weekend off from blogging, but fortunately, my family members have pitched in to help out. I received a holiday card from my mom that was pretty funny. It said something like, "The holidays are full of turkeys, hams and nuts....and that's just the relatives." Of course, no matter how nutty, there is nothing better than spending time with the people you care about, no mater how nutty.

Today, here is a special guest post form my brother in law, Ollie. He has similar adventurous food tastes to mine, only minus the barbeque and philly cheese steaks because he is a vegetarian :) He is also so smart, witty and generally hilarious. Plus he cooks, too, as you'll see below. And guess what ladies, he's single!

Happy day after Thanksgiving everyone! Hope you had a great holiday and hope you enjoy this post too. Love you! xoxo,

E

Hi everyone! My name is Ollie and I'm subbing for Em on her blog today. I don't really have anything too freaky for freaky Friday. I think the freakiest part was just the idea of me cooking. Today wasn't that bad, and I put out the fire immediately (but not quick enough to save the blender. Oops.).

I've been experimenting with making my own bread for a few months now; unfortunately, I've made little progress. Today I followed a recipe from the New York Times. The best part of it is the amount of ingredients: 4. Water, flour, yeast, salt. There's also a video of it floating around. Anyway here's a foto of today's loaf; the crust wasn't as good as it normally is but it was still fairly stiff:

The crumb was actually better than I usually get it; I got a few more air bubbles than normal, but it was a little dense. Still it tasted impressive:

I also finally got around to making my bobas. I've been looking for these for a while. I found them in a little Thai store and cooked them up. They are really easy to prepare; they only need to be cooked in water for a few minutes:

Note that smiling spoon--it seems to know something that I don't (maybe that my blender is too close to the stove). I don't know if you guys have tried bobas (usually used in bubble tea or peal milk tea), but they are big purple tapioca pearls. The lady who sold them to me recommended that I try them in a mango smoothie. She convinced me pretty easily; I also tried them in some milky chai rooibos tea. The bobas went well with both. They don't add much flavor but they are fun to slurp up and chew:

Also I've been wanting to try persimmons since reading Li-Young Lee's poem. So when I found them at wal-mart I had to try one. I forgot to take a picture of them whole, so I found a pic online and while I searched for the picture I learned that they were called by ancient greeks "the fruit of the gods":

This probably wasn't the best way to try an unfamiliar food but I just cut it up and popped it in my mouth. It was sort of like eating a ripe mango but it made my mouth feel like it was covered in fuzz. So I would recommend cooking them--unless you enjoy the fuzzy-mouth sensation.

Anyway thanks for reading my about my experimentations and don't worry Emily will be back soon. And thanks Emily for letting me post. Hugs and Kisses.