Happy Welch Rarebit Day!

Somewhere between exercise and brunch this morning, I checked Facebook and was delighted to learn from the British Cheese Board (of COURSE I follow them on Facebook) that today is National (in the UK at least) Welch Rarebit Day!

Lacking the ingredients to make the recipe they provided, I decided to experiment a little. This wonderful brunch is what I came up with:





I sliced the heel of a baguette so that the bottom of a little baking dish was lined with bread.

I mixed about 2-3 heaping tablespoons of neufchâtel cheese with a drizzle (about 1/2 tsp) of A1 steak sauce with a smaller drizzle (about 1/3 tsp) of spicy brown mustard. When combined, this mixture had the approximate color of French vanilla ice cream.

After spreading the seasoned neufchâtel on the bread, I sprinkled a layer of shredded, sharp cheddar on top and broiled the whole thing until the cheese had melted and just started to evenly bubble and brown.

The result is fluffy, creamy and toasty with a slight crunch on the outside. The texture reminds me a little of roasted marshmallows.

When preparing this again, I will need to shift the neufchâtel to sharp cheddar ratio a little, in favor of more cheddar and less neufchâtel. I could stand to have more greasy crunch next time.

But all-in-all, I am satisfied. This was a wonderful Blue Monday brunch!

Holiday Food Highlights

Mind you, during the mad holiday shuffle of the last two days, I did not decide to photograph every amazing food that I was lucky enough to partake in. But I did snap some quick pictures during two quiet moments:

Decorating my creatively shaped gingerbread cookies
with my two nieces at my husband's parents' house.
What's more festive than the Batman logo?

My dad's brie en crute. Brie cheese wrapped in puff pastry,
with a layer of dried cherries and fresh rosemary from his
garden between the cheese and its top crust. Fan-tastic.

Dinosaur Gingerbread Cookies!

So it's been Christmas eve for a little over an hour now. I am currently finishing up a cookie baking marathon of modestly epic proportion. It is time... To bust out the dinosaur-shaped sandwich cutter for purposes of gingerbread.




Awesome.




Adorable, even though my hand was shaking a just liiiiiiittle bit from exhaustion, blurring the photo ever so slightly.

I only hope that I do not anthropomorphize these cookies so seriously that I cannot eat them tomorrow after decorating them with family.

Good night, internet!

Oh wow, Ham Bow

I am right now, at this very moment, in the Hawaii BBQ Restaurant in Seattle's University District with my wonderful friend Jessica Salas. This is one of her old UW haunts, and we are hiding from worry and enjoying an afternoon out. What could be finer?

The ham bow is amazing. I don't know if it's the best in the city, because I haven't eaten all of the ham bow in the city. But it completely trumps the stuff I usually get at the Redmond Uwajamaya.

Also, this bun is about 4" to 5" across, really hearty, and at $2.29 it is actually cheaper than cooking a meal at home.









IS this the meaning of life? I am not qualified to say. But... probably. Probably yes.






Relaxed decor, brilliant food.

Good Egg, Bad Egg

Oh food blog, how I have neglected you. I have so many articles ready to write, all of which I have been selfishly hoarding inside of my own head like so many gold teeth and fancy microchips.

To ease myself into the purging of so much unwritten material, I need to start off with something simple. Something charming. Something illuminating. Something...

I have it!

Some time ago, I had the grand fortune to finally encounter a rotten egg for the first time in my adult life. I threw it out with the shell still intact, but not before getting to finally perform the classic "Does it float?" rotten egg test. Goody!

Observe:

This lovely egg waited too long in the fridge, and now it floats.

This egg was purchased moments after the above
discovery. It is new and does not float.

SCIENCE!!!   

Coming Soon: A Negative Review of SOMETHING

Hello!

Hope you're enjoying The Food Section.

I realized while reading my gushing blog entry about Harney & Sons's Paris tea that I might endorse a little too heavily in this blog while criticizing too lightly. In fact, I'm afraid that I might read like an advertisement!

I certainly wouldn't turn down advertising money, if someone who produces a product I like might want to pay me for liking it openly. I would also gratefully accept free samples of products to review! But I'll be up-front about it, should that sort of opportunity present itself. So far it hasn't.

But still.

I need to come up with a food that I dislike so that I can provide my readership (myself?) with a negative review. It's only proper, isn't it?

In the meanwhile, to whet your whistle, I do want to point out that while Harney & Sons's Paris tea is lovely when steeped properly, it can become bitter and unpleasant when significantly oversteeped.

I have friends who like oversteeped tea, and that's fine. But I'm only one to happily oversteep mint tisane or other things that don't actually have tea leaves in them. That's just who I am. I don't like oversteeped tea leaves.

There. How's that for a description of an unpleasant food experience? I can show pickiness, just like any writer can!

More reviews are on their way, just you wait.

Harney & Sons "Paris" Tea

My favorite tea!

Being the goof that I am, I like Harney & Sons with the squealing, girlish, socially awkward overenthusiasm normally reserved for my favorite books, music, movies, actors, video games, television programs and the like. I am an actual geek for this tea company.

The tea that I hands-down consume more than any other is their Paris tea. It is my go-to tea.

I have a monumental sweet-tooth. I have a medically dangerous sweet tooth! Part of my mission in life is to try to find calorie-innocuous, sweet things that I can consume for hours on end.

Harney & Sons Paris is a small miracle in this way because it's a nice, hearty, energy-boosting black tea that's also light and sweet enough for me to drink happily without adding cream or sugar. (For everyday eating, I prefer to save my cream and sugar consumption for dessert.)

I favor sachets so I can bring them to work. They're also convenient for traveling with!

This is not to say that I love this tea exclusively, of course. Just intensely.