snapshots from a shared blogosphere

Today, I’m excited to announce a new project that I recently took part in. We all know (or you should) how much I love food, especially international cuisines. So I’ve teamed up with a group of bloggers around the world to stop and drop on the same day, at the same time, to photograph what we were eating. 

The Lineup:

Jessica, San Francisco, 8:00am

Me, Philadelphia, 11am 

Julie, London, 4pm

Judith, Seoul, midnight

It’s amazing what a cuisine will say about a culture, and this project has me itching to go eat my way around the world. Food is something people want to share with each other because it’s a deep rooted and meaningful piece of ourselves. The memories you have from being young, the meals your mom used to make, the restaurants you visited with your best friends in high school - traditions and memories develop around food, and the way in which each culture does it is unique. 

Here in Philadelphia on a Saturday morning, I had four friends walking in the door. As they arrived, I was putting the finishing touches on a brunch spread I had prepared using my favorite local and organic ingredients. For me, two things are important when it comes to food: home cooked and ethically-sourced. It’s not necessarily the most common way to consume food in this country, but it is one that is held in high regard. People here love a home cooked meal. And people here love food they can feel good about. Also, it should be noted that brunch is a very American thing…a brilliant custom if you ask me.

The Menu:

Baked Ricotta: made with Wholesome Dairy Farm’s Grass-Fed Raw Milk and Dutch Way Dairy Heavy Cream

Maitake Mushroom & Egg Scramble: mushrooms sourced from Greensgrow Farm and Sandy Ridge Farm eggs

Homemade Bloody Mary’s: made with tomatoes sourced at Greensgrow Farm, home brewed pickles, Clover Creek Cheese Cellar Pirate Blue Cheese, and Sky Vodka

Rosemary and Sel Di Gris Popovers: made with rosemary sourced in Philadelphia’s famous Italian Market, Sel Di Gris purchased from The Meadow in NYC, King Arthur Organic Flour, and Wholesome Dairy Farm’s Grass-Fed Raw Milk

Home-brewed Iced Tea: with ginger, chamomile, cinnamon sticks, clove, rose hip, and Walt's Swarmbustin' honey. 

Peach Preserves: made by Fifth of a Farm

We sat around the table for a good two hours. There were several foreigners in the group - something that is very common in our melting pot of a country - and the conversation went from talking about one person’s country to the next. That’s the lovely thing about brunch, you sit and enjoy the food, and then you sit some more and enjoy each other. It’s a long drawn-out custom that is perfect for the weekend, and a good way to enjoy the company of friends. I should also mention that at my house, dogs are always welcome, so we had three dogs playing underfoot and providing us with plenty of intermittent laughs. 

And that is how we Philadelphians do it. Head on over to Thread & Bones to see what was simultaneously occurring in the culinary worlds around the globe.

popover recipe

Often times at work I'm checking out blogs - looking into their follower counts, assessing their brand appropriateness, you know, the standard. A random day about a month ago, my eye was caught while doing so. Fluffy delicate popovers flowed over a basket while soft melty butter tauntingly rested beside it. It could safely have been called food porn. So hypnotized was I, that I immediately remember an unused gift card to Amazon. Right then and there, I went on to buy the first popover pan I saw. Back to work.

In classic Amazon fashion the pan arrived two days later (Prime!). I what? I bought a popover pan? I guess I had to make some.

For weeks I said I was going to make breakfast. There kept not being enough time, or not enough energy to run to the store for that last missing ingredient. When I finally got around to it, I did it right. I baked those babies golden, served them in a pretty arrangement, and doled out slabs of butter alongside local strawberry jam. It was the simplest, most self indulgent breakfast I've had in a long time. I think it might just be my stable from now on - whipping up popovers anytime I feel.  

Ingredients (makes a dozen):

1 1/4 Cups 2% Milk

2 Cups All-Purpose Flour

1/2 Tsp. Salt

1/2 Tsp. Baking Powder

3 Eggs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450F and grease your pan

2. Sift together dry ingredients in a small bowl, set aside.

3. Heat milk for 2 min in the microwave.

4. Using a hand blender, whip your eggs until foamy, and then slowly add in milk, then dry ingredients.

5. Fill popover pan so that each cup is mostly full.

6. Bake at 450F for 20 minutes and then lower to 350F for another 20.

7. Eat warm with lots of butter and jelly