Friday, November 27, 2009

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.

11 comments:

  1. How great that your family is doing guest posts!!! SO much fun! :)

    Oliie did a great job! I just tried persimmons for the first time too and I'm really not too sure about them. I mean, I enjoyed it, but I don't think I loved them enough to buy them regularly. You know? :)

    Happy Thanksgiving girl! Hope it was sensational!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great guest post! That's great that your brother-in-law will do this for you! :D

    I LOVE persimmons. You need to pick the right ones, though. Good ones shouldn't have a fuzzy sensation in the mouth. Also, there are different types...My fave is the hibachi, which is so soft that you dig in with a spoon.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I loooove persimmons! Although, I think the fuzziness only happens when they're not quite ripe.

    Also, I am totally impressed by your bread. That's one of the foods I'm too scared to make!

    Hope you're having a great weekend Emily!! :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Nice to 'meet' you- I am impressed by anyone that makes their own bread. Definitely not easy to do! I've done it a few times using a mix- easier, but you get the fun and stress relief of kneading the dough (and the awesome smell of freshly baked bread- is there anything better?!)

    I have never tried bubble tea- the tapioca pearls look great!

    ReplyDelete
  5. i loved this guest post! i am so impressed by making your own bread.

    we will miss you girl-have a great week off of blogging!!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Love the guest post! And bread making is super impressive - I've never had the guts to try it...and I'd probably devour an entire loaf myself haha!! Looks pretty delicious to me!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Let's be honest - I love anything with bread pictured ;)

    Great guest post!! I've never had bubble tea or persimmons so this was fun!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hey thanks for the comments and I guess next time i get persimmons i'll have to make sure theyre ripe.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I love bubble tea! Persimmons are great :)

    ReplyDelete
  10. i recently tried my first persimmon and loved it! i was surprised how sweet they are. nice job filling in for em, they are tough shoes to fill ;)

    ReplyDelete
  11. i have never tried a persimmon...i know, scandalous! thanks for the guest post :)

    ReplyDelete