I recently received a package in the mail at KCRW. Opening it up revealed a thin, long package of wood strips of differing thickness held together with a loop of chain called Pastry Wands. I was immediately intrigued.
I tend to be a chaotic cook who forgoes attempts at perfection for simply making food that tastes really good, so often my dough is uneven when I roll it out. That never worries me.
If it did I would have bought one of the few items marketed to bakers who want perfectly even crusts or cookies. There are adjustable rolling pins, thick rubber bands to attach to your pin, even sunken boards with height adjustable edges.
They’ve all seemed a bit gadget driven for me. But the Pastry Wands combine usefulness with beauty.
A well designed package of simple strips with measurements burned into the wood edge. They have a distinctly tactile appeal. So I took them home and put them to use. A great holiday gift idea for your favorite baker.
This is a recipe “re-do” of a long time favorite that’s now a smart weapon in my war against weight…and it’s not only skinny-fied, it’s simplified: Cucumber and Pepper Pickles with Whole Spices.
There are those who are intuitive cooks. They can just rustle up some
ingredients from their pantry and freezer and blithely come up with a
smashing meal with the effortless grace that leaves someone like me
scratching their head feeling like a pair of brown shoes in a world of
Tuxedos.
Thinking about Inauguration Day food festivities all of a sudden I realized that this can’t be a beer and popcorn afternoon grazing session, or late night ice cream buffet. No, Inauguration Day is a morning celebration. We need to begin Tuesday morning with a bang, with a dish worthy of taking a day off to immerse ourselves in simple happiness. The popover popped into my mind (yes, I did actually think that). When was the last time you had a popover? 
If you buy shell on shrimp or fresh shrimp with heads and shell you can make shrimp broth. It’s a very useful frozen pantry item to have for making risotto, fish soup or infusing a seafood pasta, or pan sauce with more flavor. And it only takes a half hour to make. In fact I never actually set out to make shrimp broth, it’s always a by-product of peeling shrimp for another dish, so it’s important to be flexible about what to put in the pot along with the peels in order to end up with a flavorful result.