When cheese meets chocolate

This is a cute video:

        


What an unlikely combo, bet it tastes great though!  Can I call it cheesy choc?
VvV Amanda

Pancake Day

When I woke up yesterday and realised it was pancake day (!), I really wanted some o' that good ol' thin, flat, round carbohydrate-rich goodness. BUT I wanted to try something new (and I've been craving yorkshire puddings constantly for the past couple of weeks) so I thought a german pancake would be perfect.

And boy was it good, a little sugar, butter, cinnamon... mmmhmmm. Like a cross between fried dough, a yorkshire pudding and a pancake. I would make it with less egg next time or in a bigger dish so it would be thinner, but it was SO GOOD.

Ingredients (from Real Simple)

• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup milk, preferably whole
• 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice (optional)
• 1/2 cup fruit jam (optional)
• 2 tablespoons confectioners' sugar
• 
  
• Directions
• 1. Heat oven to 400° F. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs to combine. Add the flour and whisk until smooth. Add the milk, salt, and vanilla and mix until incorporated; set aside.
• 2. Add the butter to a large cast-iron skillet and transfer to oven until the butter melts. Remove from oven and quickly pour the batter into the hot skillet. Return to oven and bake until the pancake is puffed and golden, about 15 minutes.
• 3. Drizzle the lemon juice (if using) over the pancake. Spread the jam (if using) evenly over the top. Sprinkle with the confectioners' sugar.

Fat Tuesday is RIGHT!

♥, Azzara

Berry Good

Yesterday, when I opened my fridge and realised that I had way too much fruit lying around (good problem to have, eh?), the only solution was this guy. Crumbly, cakey, fruity, sweet but not too sweet.. such a dream.

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch (I used flour instead)

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. Cool completely before cutting into squares

YUM!

♥, Azzara

Murray's Cheese has a tumblr.

This is for all you cheesy peeps: New York City's oldest and best cheese shop now has a tumblr. 
Check it out at http://murrayscheese.tumblr.com/ for cheesy goodness.


VvV Amanda

Sweet Paul

Paul Lowe is a Norwegian food and prop stylist and crafter who runs the blog Sweet Paul. There's all kinds of fun DIY projects, delicious recipes and be-autiFUL photos. He started his own online magazine with a bunch of awesome photographers and food stylists. The holiday issue of Sweet Paul magazine is now out, and it's supa cool as usual. Click on the image below to check it out!

Definitely makes me feel like Christmas is coming! I'm doing some fun cooking tonight so hopefully I'll be blogging about that soon. I've also been watching a lot of The Wonder Years recently, I can't help it!


♥, Azzara

Eye What You Eat

As someone who loves pretty pictures, cooking and FOOD of all kinds, I'm totally into Eye What You Eat. No Reservations cameraman Erik Shirai is the man behind the "hardcore food porn" (Anthony Bourdain's words, not mine haha). The concept is food basically prepping and cooking itself, and Shirai has even given us several yummy options: potage, soba and capri. Check out the Potage video below (full screen if you can!), and click through to Eye What You Eat for the rest:

Potage from erik shirai on Vimeo.

Whooooooooooo's hungry? (ME!)

Have a fantastic week, and for the NYCers - please try not to drown!

♥, Azzara

Adventurin'

Hey ya'll! Sorry I've been so MIA recently. I've been visiting friends all around town (meaning in the North East) and it sure has been grand. Two weeks ago, Amanda and I took the trek up to Boston on the fancyschmancy Megabus to visit us some friends. We went to check out the SoWa market where I got my favourite ever lamb on a stick back in May, from the Silk Road BBQ cart. Gimme that! 

Homemade Fresh Pasta

On Father's Day weekend I made fresh pasta.  As you can probably tell from my previous food recipe posts, I basically only like to make things that have not that many ingredients and also don't have many preparation steps.  This pasta definitely fit the bill so don't worry if you think you can't make it work- it was actually pretty easy and also very tasty.  I recommend you try this recipe!  It's also fun to knead/ roll the dough if you have any pent up aggression or stress (haha). 

Homemade Pasta
serves 4-6 people


2 cups all purpose flour
3 eggs
1/2 tsp. salt


Pour the flour into a pile on a flat surface and make a well in the center of the flour.  Put the salt in the well and then crack one of the eggs into the center.  Using a fork, gradually work the flour into the egg.  Repeat this process with the remaining two eggs until you have a cohesive dough.  If it seems too dry then you can add a tsp. of water if absolutely necessary.  Now knead the dough on the floured surface for about two minutes until the dough becomes smooth.  Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let rest about 20 min.  You can refrigerate the dough at this point if you want to wait to roll it out for up to 24 hrs (optional). Roll out the dough on the floured surface until it is your desired thickness (about 1/8 inch thick).  Fold each side of the dough towards the center 1/2 way and then fold it in again.  Cut your dough into strips (whatever thickness you desire).  At this point you should unroll your cut strips and hang them up to dry or else when boiled they might become gummy and stick to each other.  The strips should dry about 1-2 hours.  Now they are ready to be boiled and be served(add whatever sauce you like but it would be perfect with pesto)! They only need to boil for 2 min because they are fresh. Enjoy! 


If there are any questions leave a comment and we'll get back to you.


VvV Amanda

Food Food FOOD

I just got home from college (for the last time.. oh my goodness!) so I thought I'd post some of the fun thangs I've been up to the past few weeks before graduation. Two weeks ago I went to the SoWa market in Boston, and wandered around the farmer's market tasting every sample possible (honey, salmon paté, cheese, pesto... the list goes on). The food trucks were amazing too. I seriously think I had the best damn lamb skewer of all time from Silk Road BBQ.

Lots and lots of cooking has been occurring too, including a huge food fiesta last week with mustard-crusted chicken, rice pilaf, stir-fry beef n veggies and of course an overabundance of wine and cheese. Mah dear Caroline made a loaf of bread which I positively devoured with a touch of the honey bought at SoWA. We also decided to test out the crispy potato roast pinched from everyone's favourite Smitten Kitchen, adding in some garlic and green onions for good measure. I seriously want to eat it all over again.

Graduation was just as long and emotional as expected, but now it's time for summer in NYC. Horraaaay. Stay tuned for news of Amanda & Azzara's summer reunion, which will most definitely include food, fun and forking out money we don't have for shopping. 

♥, Azzara

BLOOD ORANGE SORBET

My aunt from sunny California sent me a huge boxful of blood oranges (thank goodness for flat rate shipping)!  They're really pretty although not totally ripe in the middle so I thought it best to make a sorbet out of the tart juice and pulp.  It turned out pretty good and if you wanted to try it'd probably work great with any kind of freshly squeezed fruit juice.  Great for the summer and very refreshing.  A scoop of it would even be good in tonic water or champagne...

Blood Orange Sorbet
2 cups orange juice with or without pulp
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cups water


Boil the water and sugar together for about a minute after it starts bubbling to make a simple syrup and let that cool while you juice the oranges.  Combine orange juice and simple syrup and then refrigerate.  Pour into sorbet/ ice cream maker and in 15-20 min it's ready.


If you don't have an ice cream maker then you can make a granita by putting the combined liquid into a freezer safe container.  Scrape the juice as it freezes every once and a while to get the icy chopped up texture. After it completely freezes it should be ready to serve. 


I think next time I try to make this I'm going to put the orange segments in a food processor to get a more even juice/ puree before combining. Might make a big difference texturally but without this step it still works. 


Happy Memorial Day weekend!  May it be relaxing and fun for all.


VvV Amanda

FRIDAY PICKS

1. interior

2. photo essays

3. outfit

4. pretty food

5. prabal collab

Have a great weekend all!

VvV Amanda

A Matter of Taste: Fulvio Bonavia's Turns Food Into Art

I was perusing my dear friend Elisa's blog and saw a post about Fulvio Bonavia, an Italian photographer best known for his advertisements for Heineken, Adidas, BMW, and Audi. After a closer look at his work, I knew I had to share with you guys. Bonavia started out as a graphic designer and illustrator and then moved into photographing for various companies. Personally, I prefer his photos that combine food and fashion (two of our favourite things here at Style Relish). His book A Matter of Taste chronicles his foray into food-related art. Check out some of my favourites below:

If you guys are looking for some cool accessories this summer, why not make a good ol' blueberry bag? The pieces are made out of real fruits and vegetables so they decay in real time, which just adds another step to the artistic process. I'd love to have a cheese bag any day, although it probably wouldn't last very long in my house. 

♥, Azzara

An Apple Sunday

Before...

and after.

This whole thing was made with only two apples! 

VvV Amanda

Barney's Warehouse and Donut Plant

About two weeks ago I went to check out the annual Barney's Warehouse Sale. As always, it was located in a basement on the west side. The prices were okay if you're looking for designer stuff and want to spend $300 instead of $700 (eek). Needless to say I felt very claustrophobic in that fashion dungeon and I left empty-handed. Although, it was definitely an experience.

After the Barney's sale we hit up the newly opened Donut Plant in the Chelsea Hotel. I've never been to the original Donut Plant on Grand Street but I loved the donut pillows hanging on the wall. Not to mention the cute donut shaped chairs. When we were there they only had three types of donuts available so we tried on of each: passion fruit glazed, carrot cake, and ginger glazed. Out of all three the carrot cake was the best. The only downside to the place was that it was extremely hot temperature wise to the point where I started sweating in my winter coat, not attractive.

Mmm, baked goods.

VvV Amanda

Amanda's trip to Chicago

Hi all! Here are some snapshots from my visit to Chicago. It was mostly grey, raining, or snowing while we were there but still throughly enjoyable. The Art Institute was really fun- kind of the a Chicago version of the Met. Saw Seurat's La Grande Jatte, and Hopper's Nighthawks. Skjgdkjskgjsk.

The definite highlight was seeing Rick Bayless at one of his Mexican inspired restaurants, Xoco. SUCH GOOD FOOD. I want more of it right now. I had a steak torta (kind of a cross between and sub and a panini) and my mom got a spicy soup with meat and avocado. And to finish? AWESOME CHURROS. AH there are no words to describe the crimped dough tubes fresh from the fryer and coated in sugar. There was an option of melted chocolate or fresh vanilla soft-serve to dip them in but we opted to keep it simple and it was too good. Need about 15 more of them right now. Stat.

Also, finally saw The King's Speech. So good. I highly recommend seeing this movie! Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter, and Colin Firth were all wonderful. My favorite part of the film was seeing the decor and interiors: the interesting wallpaper patterns, the shabby couches, and so many textures. Would it be weird to say it was a visual feast?

VvV Amanda