Making Vanilla Extract - Part 1

If anyone would were to look under our bed right now I would be the guest of honor at an intervention.  There is currently alcohol under my bed. 

Why is there alcohol under my bed?  Obviously, if you keep the monsters liquored up they make great karaoke partners.  Duh!  And, because I’m making vanilla extract.

If you hadn’t noticed, I have a bit of a sweet tooth.  I enjoy making desserts, which means I require a lot of vanilla.  Pure vanilla extract can be expensive around here.  And, if you are using imitation vanilla know that whenever I look at you I am silently mocking you when I smile.  I’ve always planned to make my own, but I never seemed to get around to it.  Until now!

It is a very simple recipe and what it requires most from you is patience.  You’re going to have to wait a month or two to harvest your extracted goodies, but that is the hardest work you’ll have to do with this recipe.

From what the all knowing Google tells me, different alcohols can give your extract a different taste.  Because I’m curious about such claims and have no issues with looking like a cheap drunk walking out of the liquor store in broad daylight, I made two different extracts.

Did I mention that bourbon tastes great in whipped cream?  I usually mention that.

 What You’ll Need:

• 1 Cup of Alcohol.  Liquor.  Hooch.  I went with some very cheap vodka and bourbon, but vodka is most popular.
• 3 Vanilla beans
• A glass jar

 1.  Clean out your jar.  Glass can hold smells.  You don’t want pickle smell in your vanilla extract.  Only 13 year old boys will want it, and that’s because they will eat anything on a dare.  Take some vinegar and shake it around in your jar.  Rinse and do a sniff test.  If it smells okay move on to step two.  If not, repeat your vinegar swish or let it sit overnight.  Or, you know, get a new jar.

I keep a lot of vinegar on hand at all times.  If I tell you why you won't be able to unknow it.

2.  Cut your vanilla beans lengthwise with a paring knife, and put them in the jar.  Cutting in a straight line was harder than I thought it would be, but I also decided it didn’t matter that much.

What do you expect?  I failed cut and paste in kindergarten.

 3.  Measure out a cup of vodka/bourbon/rum/whiskey/whatever you drink to make the pain go away.  I'm not judging.  At least, not to your face.

If you put the bottle in the bathroom you can tell people it's medicine.

 4.  Pour your liquor of choice over the vanilla beans and try to keep the beans submerged in the liquor. 

5.  Label your jar and stick in a dark cool spot for a at least a month. 

Now, we wait…  So… How’ve you been?  How’s your mom?  Her new haircut is flattering…  She has great cheekbones.

Um…

I’ll have to test the extract when it’s done.  I’ll need to bake something to see how it tastes.  Any suggestions?  Leave them in the comments.

But, seriously, your mom looks great.

How to Cut up a Pineapple. My first video post!

It's my first video post!  And, it's about my favorite fruit: Pineapple!

"Carrots are Nature's candy."  Screw carrots, pineapples are truly Nature's candy.  That's just something the Carrot Lobby has been pushing to get us all to see better.  I'm mean, seriously, carrot cake is barely even cake.  It's a vegetable bread masquerading as a dessert.

Pineapples are naturally sweet without the aid of sugar, great for you digestion, and smell great when you accidentally spill the juice on your shirt.  Carrots are orange.

As this is my first time filming a video I cannot promise you perfection.  I did the whole thing in one take because I'm lazy and afraid of editing equipment.  That being said, I think it came out pretty well and it will hopefully give you the confidence to cut up your own pineapple instead of just relying on the canned variety.

Unfortunately, my card filled up before I could show you what I did with the pineapple top (hence the weird ending point).  But, it's pretty simple.

What You'll Need:

• Pineapple top - Not to be confused with a muffin top or apple bottom.
• Hands - Doesn't have to be your own.  The small nimble hands of child labor will do just fine.
• A glass - A jar is okay if it's big enough.
• Water - Tap water will work if you cannot walk 3 miles to the village well.

1.  Pull off the leaves closest to the bottom of the pineapple top.  You want to strip away enough that you don't have leaves soaking in water.  Soaking leaves leads to mushy rot water.

2.  Put water in the glass.

3.  Put the pineapple top in the glass of water.

4. Take a nap because you've exhausted yourself.


I will probably need to transfer my pineapple top to a bigger water receptacle later, but this will do for now.  Once a good root system starts to form I will transfer the whole thing to a pot.  Ideally, it will start to grow and a couple of years from now I will have a wonderful pineapple plant.  Realistically, it will probably die by the end of this week because I am the Plant Grim Reaper.

Now, about that rind...

Experiment: Martha Stewart's No-Churn Vanilla (& Cheesecake) Ice Cream

Let me start out by saying that I am a huge Martha Stewart fan. I have a perfectionist streak that admires the work she puts into everything she sets her mind to.  Is she the cuddliest woman? No. But, the woman is undoubtedly a force. She created an empire, went to prison, and re-asserted herself in a place of power.  You might not want to have a beer with her (in a tasteful beer stein from a vintage cottage in the Black Forest), but there is no reason not to respect her. Also, she has a kick-ass pancake recipe that will make you curse the day you set eyes on pancake mix.
 

I have had this pillow for years.  You have no idea how many times the answer is Rochambeau.

That's why this pains me so much: I didn't like this recipe. 

Now, I will admit there is a good chance I screwed it up.  I don't have the best luck with no-churn, frozen, dairy-based treats.  When Sarah Carey demonstrates the no-churn ice cream the outcome looks perfect.

The less said about my spumoni the better.

But, there are only three (with an optional fourth) ingredients in it!  I made a vanilla flavored; and, because I think cream cheese is a gift from the heavens, I also made a cheesecake flavored. Let's recap and see where I could have gone wrong.

No-Churn Vanilla Ice Cream
Ingredients

• 1 can (14 ounces) sweetened condensed milk
• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons bourbon (optional)
• 2 cups cold heavy cream

 *For the cream cheese I used an 8 ounce pack of cream cheese.  Yes, I see the folly of that now, but all my greedy little heart could think of was cheesecake flavored ice cream with little strawberries playfully delighting my taste buds.  Sigh.*

1.  In a medium bowl, stir together condensed milk, vanilla, and Bourbon, if desired.
    *Okay.  This part was easy peasy (Spell check says that's not a word.  Spell check needs to chillax.  Hm. Apparently, also not a word.).  I put in half the can and 1 teaspoonful of vanilla into each bowl.  Which already makes that much cream cheese a big mistake, but the vanilla should still be on track.*
   
   
   
   
   In a large bowl, using an electric mixer, beat cream on high until stiff peaks form, 3 minutes.
    *Easily done for the vanilla flavored.  For the cheesecake I whipped the cream cheese first till it was nice and fluffy.  Then I add the heavy cream.  So far everything tastes delicious.
   
   
   
   
   Quick tip: I wiped out my mixing bowl with vinegar before I started whipping the cream in case there were any oils left in the bowl.  Obviously, I also dried it before I started mixing.*
   
   
   
2. With a rubber spatula, gently fold whipped cream into condensed milk mixture. Pour into a 4 1/2-by-8 1/2-inch loaf pan. Freeze until firm, 6 hours. 
   
   
   

I did all of that!  Before I put it in the freezer everything tasted great.  The vanilla reminded me of Blue Bell (The Best Ice Cream In The Country) Vanilla, and the cheesecake was begging for fresh fruit.  I walked away, confident that we would be eating delicious ice cream in a few hours.  My husband was thrilled at the prospect that I might stop blatantly begging for an ice cream maker.  We were both fools.

With the cheesecake I'm pretty sure that there was too much cream cheese in the mixture.  The ratios were way off and there wouldn't have been enough heavy cream to keep the cream cheese from seizing up.  With the vanilla I'm not sure what went wrong.  The "ice cream" had a chalky mouthfeel and doesn't melt in the creamy way that ice cream does.  It looks like ice cream, but the texture keeps reminding me that it isn't.  My husband says it similar to the difference between real milk and rice milk.  The consistency just wasn't right.
But, that is the nature of experimentation.  Some things work (such as chocolate and caramel) and some things do not (no one is ever going to convince me that Red Bull and anything taste great together).

Chocolate and Vanilla Panna Cotta

 A couple of years ago, my husband and I went out to eat for our anniversary. The meal was excellent, and it was the first time I had panna cotta. It was a vanilla panna cotta with a blueberry coulis. I thought "Panna cotta is so fancy!"  Of course we could only have it on our anniversary, at a nice restaurant! I mean, where else would someone get it? At home?
Yes.

Look at my new prep bowl! It's the one holding the strawberries. Hi! Prep bowl!

Panna cotta, Italian for "cooked cream", is so simple to make that I feel like an idiot for not trying it sooner. According to this article on The Kitchn, it is the perfect dessert. I can't say they're wrong. It's easy to make, easy to adjust to your desires, requires few ingredients, demands little of your time or attention, it feels luxurious while you're eating it, and is freakin' delicious!

Now, usually I make vanilla panna cotta, throw some fresh fruit on it, and call myself a fancy lady; but my cousin came to visit last week. I was feeling like a big shot and offered her the choice of vanilla or chocolate panna cotta (as if I had ever made chocolate).  She, unknowingly, called my bluff and asked for chocolate.  I had a mini-panic attack, but I'm sure I covered it well with my crazy-eyed stare. Then I thought, "Ha! You probably just throw some cocoa powder in the cream." I always have cocoa powder (you know, for the cocoa powder fairy) and was again feeling smug.

You do not "just throw some cocoa powder in the cream." But, the process was still simple.
That night, for dessert, I made both chocolate and vanilla panna cotta (If I messed up the chocolate, I still wanted dessert. I'm impulsive, not insane.). The vanilla was, as usual, perfect. The chocolate was...gritty. My cousin liked it, but I could not let this injustice stand. Not only would I get the chocolate recipe right, but I wanted to layer them in one serving glass.

The first thing I did was choose a new chocolate recipe. I halved this recipe from William-Sonoma. I don't have ramekins (someone says I don't need any). I have these beauties:

Why I have a ton of glassware for alcohol I don't drink is a mystery to me too.

  
They don't hold as much as a ramekin might, but that's okay. If you don't have ramekins do not let that stop you from making panna cotta. If you do, I will make fun of you. Loudly. In front of your mom.

I chose to make the chocolate first because it would be my bottom layer in the glass.

Chocolate Panna Cotta from the Willam-Sonoma website
*Remember, I halved the recipe. My measurements are in red.)

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 (3/4) cups heavy cream
• 1 1/4 (5/8) tsp. plain gelatin 
• 1/4 (1/8) cup mascarpone cheese or additional heavy cream  I used additional heavy cream.
• 2 (1) Tbs. sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 (1) oz. bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, finely chopped  I chopped up semisweet chocolate chips. A very zen experience. I highly recommend it.

1. Coat four 5-oz. ramekins or 6-oz. custard cups lightly with flavorless oil.  I don't coat my glass in oil as I serve the panna cotta from the glass.

2. Pour 1/4 (1/8) cup of the cream into a small heatproof bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over it and let stand until softened, about 10 minutes. Place the bowl in a larger bowl of hot water and stir until the gelatin has dissolved.

You want it to look like wet wrinkled sand. Wet Wrinkled Sand is also the name of my new emo/folk band so don't steal it.

3. Meanwhile, in a saucepan over medium heat, bring the remaining 1 1/4 (5/8) cups cream, the mascarpone, sugar and salt just to a boil. Remove the pan from the heat, add the chocolate and whisk until smooth.  This is where I went wrong the first time. I didn't whisk enough. Whisk until it the chocolate is completely blended in. Otherwise your panna cotta will be gritty.

4. Add the gelatin mixture to the chocolate mixture and stir until well blended. Pour through a fine strainer into a 4-cup glass measuring cup or a bowl with a pour spout. Divide the mixture evenly among the ramekins and let cool to room temperature. Don't skip the strainer. I put strawberries at the bottom of the glasses, but as the mixture is liquid it didn't quite come out looking how I would have wanted.

Eh...not quite what I was going for. Also, I don't know where I got a Stolichnaya martini glass. Probably the cocoa fairy.

5. Cover the panna cotta loosely and refrigerate until set and thoroughly chilled, at least 3 hours or up to 1 day.

6. To serve, dip the ramekins one at a time into a bowl of hot water for about 5 seconds, then run a table knife around the edges of the custard and invert onto a chilled serving plate.  This wasn't really an issue for me because of how I planned to serve it and because I would be layering some of the glasses.

Here is where common sense should have stepped in and told me to wait at least an hour before I started the next, but I was watching a Korean drama (I love them!) and not paying enough attention to the time.  I only waited about 10-15 minutes before I started on the vanilla panna cotta.  Why is this a problem? You'll see...
 
Panna Cotta - How to Make Panna Cotta  from the Whats Cooking America website
* This is the recipe I always use when making vanilla panna cotta. I also halved this recipe.  My measurements are in red.*

Ingredients

1 envelope unflavored gelatin (approx. 2 (1) teaspoons)
1/2 (1/4) cup milk
2 1/2 (1 1/4) cups heavy cream*
1/2 (1/4) cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean or 2 (1) teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup fresh berries, gently washed, drained, and sweetened to taste**
6 sprigs fresh mint  I omited the mint.


* Half & half, buttermilk, whole milk, and/or sour cream may be substituted for part of the cream.
** Any assortment of fresh, seasonal fruit may be served with panna cotta, but berries are especially nice. To use other ripe, soft fruits, such as cherries, peaches or apricots, just remove the stones and peels as necessary and cut them into thin slices or bite-size pieces.



1. In a small bowl, sprinkle the gelatin over 1/2 (1/4) cup milk; let stand until the gelatin is softened, about 5 minutes.


2. In a large saucepan, combine heavy cream and sugar. Add vanilla extract or vanilla bean. If using a vanilla bean, slice the bean lengthwise and scrape out seeds into cream (add whole bean to cream for additional flavor). Bring cream just to a simmer (do not let it boil), whisking occasionally until sugar has completely dissolved; remove from heat and remove vanilla bean pod. 

TAKE IT OFF THE BURNER! If you don't, you're still cooking it.

3. Add the softened gelatin mixture and whisk to completely dissolve the gelatin.

4. Strain hot cream mixture into a large glass measuring cup with a pouring spout; pour into ramekins or custard cups. NOTE: Don't skip the straining step as it removes any bits of un-dissolved gelatin and insures a nice smooth dessert. Also, don't let the cream mixture cool before straining. If using a vanilla bean, lightly swirl the cream to distribute the seeds evenly. 

5. Refrigerate for at least 3 hours or overnight.

6. To unmold and serve, carefully dip bottom of each ramekin in a baking pan of hot water briefly. Run a thin knife around edge of each ramekin to loosen it from the inside of the bowl. Wipe the outside of the mold dry and place on individual chilled serving plate (topside down). Invert the custard onto the plate and carefully lift off ramekin (shake gently to release).

Why should I have waited longer? Because the chocolate panna cotta hadn't had enough to time to solidify and I got a bit of a marbled top.

Eh...not quite what I was going for.

Did that change the taste?  A little.  But, it was still good! The chocolate was smooth this time! It was like a more firm, silky chocolate pudding.  The two flavors worked well together.  Let me know in the comments how yours turns out.

Italian Ice

 "Summertime, and the livin' is easy!" According to Porgy and Bess, summertime involves fish, cotton, and rich daddies.  Afterwards, everyone lives happily ever after. I'm pretty sure Porgy becomes a stockbroker and Bess is his desperate housewife, or something like that.
Wow. That got off track really fast.
What I meant to say is that summer is fast approaching!  Around our apartment, summer means Italian ice!  I try to keep one or two flavors of Italian ice in our freezer at all times throughout the season.  It's quick, refreshing, and not too heavy on the calories.
My Italian ice recipe is an adaptation of one I found on Epicurious.com.  I used plums, pluots, and raspberries; but most fruit are adaptable to the recipe.  I think stone fruit and berries make the best ices.  Be creative!
Ingredients
- approximately 2 cups of fruit (I used 1 plum, 2 pluots, and eyeballed the raspberries)
- a heaping 1/4 cup of sugar
- approximately 4 to 5 cups of crushed or small cubes of ice
* You can probably sense that this is a very forgiving recipe.  None of my numbers are set in stone.  Everything can be adapted to suit your tastes.
Tools You'll Need
- 1 glass dish (Mine is an 8x8 Pyrex casserole dish)
- A blender
- (optional) An immersion blender

'Do I... Do I dare to eat a...plum?'

1. Put the glass dish into the freezer for approximately 30 minutes.
2. Put the fruit in the blender and sprinkle the sugar on top.  Shake the sugar so that it gets into the nooks and crannies of the fruit. I use my immersion blender for this part, but I'm sure it's easier to put it directly into the regular blender.

"Pour some sugar on me!" Naughty little raspberries.

3. Purée the fruit and sugar.  Taste the purée.  Add sugar or fruit as you see fit, but remember that the ice will water down the taste slightly.

This looks like I'm preparing for a scene in Carrie.

4. Put the purée into the pitcher blender (if it isn't already there), and top with ice.  Pulse until most of the ice is incorporated into the purée.  Then run the blender until you get a smooth uniform color.  Be patient. This part takes a few minutes, but is worth the wait. You're looking for a smooth finish, no crunchy ice.

5. Pour the mixture into your chilled glass dish. Put the dish in the freezer for about 30 minutes to firm.

6. Bask in the joy of Italian ice.

Why matryoshka? Because Italian ice is now a Russian dessert? 

How to read a recipe

For some people cooking is intimidating.  There is a pressure to get everything "right".  The fear of screwing up the family meal often leads folks to stay inside their food comfort zone: food from a box, only canned food, salad, etc., etc.
Well, in this brave new world of ours there is no reason for that.  The internet is literally rife with recipes.  Recipes for almost anything you could ever want, and many things no one wants.  Recipes can also be overwhelming for the uninitiated, but I am here to help!
A recipe is just a set of instructions.  The first time someone told you how to tie your shoe was probably a little stressful.  They wouldn't give you back your Rainbow Bright velcro sneakers and were forcing you to use a piece of string capped by an aglet.  I mean, how is that even practical?  The little strings are always coming undone and dragging through puddles.  Wet shoestrings suck!
Um...
My point is, some of us got over it.  You learned how to tie your shoe, and can walk around all big and bad without tripping over yourself.  You followed the instructions.

1.  Read the recipe

Pancake recipe by Diana Rattray. I've never used this recipe, but the pancakes look so pretty!

I'm sure that sounds condescending, but there are people that will glance at a recipe and then try to prepare it without reading through to the end.  Those people usually end up frustrated.
Read it through at least 2 or 3 times.  Sometimes the author puts in notes that you may need to heed.  Sometimes you may not have everything on the list and will need to make a substitution.  Reading will tell you how long a recipe will actually take to prepare.  Some parts may take longer than others, and some things need to be done quickly. 
Reading a recipe is similar to reading a map, you need to be prepared for the journey.


2. Define words you don't know
Do you know what "fricassee" means?  No?  Google it.  Actually, you don't have to, I linked to it.  You're welcome!
Your recipe may have terms or even foods that you're unfamiliar with.  Luckily, we have the great and mighty Google...and the sweet little Bing...and Altavista?  If the internet isn't good at anything else it's good at giving you information, and porn.  There is a lot of porn on the internet.  You should always wash your hands when you're finished using the internet.


3. Mise en place

Prepping for chicken tagine. My kitchen is huge by New York standards!

Mise en place will make your cooking life so much easier.  It literally means "putting in place."
Take out your ingredients, measure them out, and make them accessible to you as you cook.  This will also tell you if you're missing any ingredients before you start cooking.  Trying to get things on the fly will distract you and often leads to culinary mistakes.


4. Get rid of distractions

Distracting.

Speaking of distractions, get rid of them.  I'm not saying you must work in silence.  Music, or a tv show that doesn't require much attention, playing in the background are fine.  But, if you are engrossed in an episode of Hannibal (as you should be) or Game of Thrones you aren't paying attention to what is happening on your stove.  Your stove...where there is food that you don't want to burn...and fire.
*In the case where you are making a roux, all bets are off.  Your life, for the few minutes it takes to make it, is the roux.  I don't even take calls from my mother when I'm making a roux.  And, you know what, she understands.  I call her back and explain.  She's proud that she's raised me right.


5. Start!
Don't let the first step overwhelm you.  Don't over think it.  Just start and focus on the task at hand.  Focusing on preparing the food that goes into your body can be an active form of meditation.  Cooking well forces you to be in the moment.  Oooo! Look, a health benefit! 
Also, don't be afraid to mess up.  You're going to burn something.  You're going to use salt instead of sugar.  You're going drop your beautiful cake on the floor.  It will happen.  It doesn't make you a failure, it makes you human.  Accept that as a fact and move on. 

Once you're done cooking your fabulous meal, pat yourself on the back and wash your dishes.  No, seriously.  Wash your dishes.

Experiment: Grown-up Rice Krispie Treats

This is how grown ups eat. 

There are tons of Rice Krispie treat recipes online. My quick search brought up Pinterest pages, 50 best lists, and even Krispie truffles (uh, yum!). But I didn't see exactly what I was looking for in a recipe.  So, I'm creating it.
I believe in experimenting with your food. It's the best way to get the flavor and texture you desire. Yes, you can always ask a restaurant for substitutions or to make something more or less spicy, but restaurants aren't really in the business of individualizing your dinner choices. If Burger King really wanted you to have it your way they would just send you home with a bag of groceries.
I'm not much of a drinker. I prefer to eat my alcohol. I find that a lot of "spirits" give foods a unique taste that I can't necessarily create with non-alcoholic ingredients (tequila marinade for steak!). You don't usually need much, and most of the alcohol is cooked off during the process leaving you with a wonderfully complex flavor.
That being said, I usually put a teaspoon or so of Bailey's Irish Cream in my Rice Krispie treats.  It gives them a delicious creamy taste that butter or vanilla haven't been able to provide. So, that part is not really the experiment.  I wanted to see what adding cream cheese would do to my treats.
I started off with the basic Rice Krispie treat recipe, but halved it (if it didn't work I still wanted my Rice Krispie treats). There was some eyeballing, but this is what I came up with:

Ingredients
1 heaping tablespoon of cream cheese
1/2 tablespoon of butter
10 jumbo marshmallows
1 1/2 teaspoons of Bailey's Irish Cream (Yes, I keep Bailey's in the house. Yes, I like bingo. Yes, I think this muumuu compliments my figure. What are you trying to say?)
3 cups of Rice Krispies (You can use the store brand. Kellogg's ain't paying nobody's bills.)

You'll also need: a greased pan (I used an 8x8 square) and a greased spatula for smoothing.

1. I melted the butter and cream cheese over low heat. Low heat! This recipe is so quick that you don't need to speed things up by overheating your butter. I kept taking mine off the heat so it wouldn't brown, but I hear brown butter treats are tasty too.

Low heat!

The butter melted pretty quickly. The cream cheese didn't so much melt as form a white blobby shape in my pot, but I figured that was good enough.

Ugh! Cream cheese is such a diva.

2. I then added the marshmallows. The mixture was smooth. The blobby cream cheese mixed right in. Oh, it smelled so good!

This is probably what marshmallow porn looks like.

3. I took the pot off the heat and added the Bailey's. The Bailey's always prompts the marshmallow mixture to bubble furiously so don't freak out. Mix it in to the marshmallow. It will give the mixture a lovely light brown coloring, as if it has been summering on the Cape with it's distant, but still loving family.

"Just below the marshmallow's plain facade raged a bubbling Bailey's volcano."

4. I mixed in the Rice Krispies.  Make sure you mix it well. If you don't you'll end up with some dry Rice Krispies and a blob of marshmallow mixture.

5. I turned the warm Rice Krispie/marshmallow mixture into my greased pan and smoothed it over with my greased spatula.

6. You're then supposed to wait until they cool before cutting into them...Hahahahahahaha!!!

Results?
I think I need more cream cheese. When I first bit into one I didn't think it was anything too special, but there is a really creamy, rich after note that I kind of love.  The cream cheese adds to the overall experience of the treat, but I feel as if the taste of cream cheese (that little bit of tart) gets lost. Also, these don't firm up as much as a regular treat.  At least I don't think they do. I kind of eat them all before they get to final cooling point.
You'll notice that mine are also on the thinner side.  If you put your treats in a smaller pan there will less spreading.
The raspberries at the top were supposed to be just for decoration, but they actually tasted really good with the treats.  I may have to incorporate them into my next batch. I'll definitely eat them because they're delicious, but I have not found my perfect treat yet.

Snap and Crackle were cool to work with, but Pop was clearly off the wagon during this photo shoot.

  Leave me questions and suggestions in the comments.  I can always use fresh ideas!

Great Googa Mooga 2013

This will be quick because it's late and I'm lazy.  My plan is really only to do one blog post on Tuesdays and Fridays, but I would be remiss if I didn't say something about the Great Googa Mooga.

Look, I know the Great Googa Mooga gets a lot of grief. And, I know that canceling the last day did not go over well. Vendors lost a lot of money/food, people were not informed on time, no one got to see De La Soul and Kool and the Gang. But, I still love the event. I went last year and this past Saturday, and it's not a perfect event, but it is an exciting one for me.

I love New York, but there are a lot of culinary experiences that I can't afford. Googa Mooga allows me to experience foods from restaurants that I may never see the inside of. Foods that I never knew existed are available to me.

I feel as if there are a lot of naysayers when it comes to Googa Mooga. Before the event started last year there were critics looking for everything that could be wrong. People who hadn't even gone were complaining about what they heard were problems.

That orange backdrop was mesmerizing...

 It's now a two year old event. I think the creators are trying to do something new and innovative. New and innovative is often nitpicked. There are those who want to be the one to say they knew this new thing wouldn't work. To me that's just sad. I'm not saying follow blindly, but everything about the Googa Mooga isn't a set up for failure:

1.  It's a free event. Yes, you have to reserve tickets, but without some limits on the number of people organizers and vendors wouldn't know how many to plan for. Also, the park would be overrun.

2. It's good advertisement for local restaurants. One complaint I saw was that all the vendors are local. So? Why is that bad? Just because a restaurant is there doesn't mean that all of New York patronizes it. I love Melt Bakery and would live off of their ice cream sandwiches if my husband would let me, but not everyone knows who they are (which is pure silliness). Granted, one of my favorite vendors comes from my hometown of New Orleans, but my body craves Crawfish Monica and I refuse to apologize for that.

3. There's more than just food vendors. This year, my husband and I sat through a joint talk with food historian Sarah Lohman and Jonathan Soma on the Futurist movement and food. And, it was great!  It was funny and we both learned a lot. We even got a demonstration of a Futurist "meal."

Last year, I saw a food "battle" using only seasonal foods from a local csa.

That year I also saw Hall & Oates live on stage.  My friends are sick of how often I tell them about my love of both Daryl Hall and John Oates' facial hair, and "Sara Smile." Because "Sara Smile" is a song to live your life to.

Eeeeee!!! Hall & Oates! Hall & Oates! Hall & Oates! And facial hair!

Before the cancellation, DeLaSoul was supposed to play right before Kool and the Gang. I think the universe might have exploded with awesome if that had actually happened, so we might want to chalk the cancellation up to divine intervention.

Matt and Kim performed on Saturday.  Clearly, it was children's concert.

4. It's a community event. There is something about attending an event where everyone is there for a similar purpose. I'm not a festival going woman. Around these parts, most street fairs are the same funnel cake and pan flute affairs. Just pick up and drop on another street the next week. Due to the way the ticket situation works, most Googa Mooga attendees are New Yorkers. It's also walking distance from my apartment. This is a true local event. I think that's something to celebrate.

 
There is a chance the Great Googa Mooga will not be back next year. That saddens me. It will never be without its problems, but I think with more work this fledgling festival can become a great festival. 

For more pictures and posts from this year's Googa Mooga visit my Twitter feed @kitchenabsurd.  While you're there you should probably follow me.  You know, for good measure.