Eat Boutique

There are so many reasons to cook. Your reasons may be different than my reasons. But my reasons are mine. I was reminded of why I cook this past weekend.

First, I don’t cook for the food. Let me repeat: I don’t cook for the food. There are no photos of food in this post and that’s purposeful. I certainly love celebrating the fruit of my labors, the prize after hours of chopping and stirring. I also find the photographing of my dishes quite rewarding, even if I still have so many more hours to photograph before I excel at this very special art. But food is really just my medium.

“The Medium is the Message” - something I learned as a journalism student back at Boston University. I am passionate about food and do cook to explore that passion. And perhaps, all these blog posts suggests that “passion for food” is my message. I suppose on some level it is. Passion for food is contagious. I caught it years ago from old friends, new friends and fellow bloggers. But that’s not my reason for cooking. Okay, well, maybe it’s a teeny reason.

I do, however, have a big reason. The big reason I cook is to connect with friends, family and strangers. I cook to foster relationships with people all over the world. From the people I meet online, to the folks who were at my house this past Saturday night, I cook to foster a sense of community, bring people together, and experience something meaningful during those small rare moments when we’re not working or shopping or just getting on with life. Some people travel to feel connected, I cook. It works.

I had a lovely group of people to the house on Saturday. We shucked oysters together. We popped open several bottles of wine together. We laughed and joked while I assembled the next three courses and then we plated everything together. We opened more wine together while starting a fire. We had several helpings of my own personal secret dessert weapon, all together. We had a fine time and one guest remarked, in his mother tongue, about how his people would say the angels were shining down on this particular moment.

I don’t know about the angels, but I know each of my guests shined that night.

As I’ve mentioned before, I am not a baker. In fact, I’ve never really baked all that much until this December. I used to marvel at friends and family who would whip up cookies and pies at Christmas’ past, thinking, “How do they find the time? It all seems so complicated; how do they understand how to do it all?”

This December, I’ve finally had the time on my hands to do it all in the ideal way. I bake several times a week, if not daily. I find following the exact steps of a cookie recipe very relaxing actually, as opposed to creating something on the fly when cooking dinner. I’ve really started to come into my own as a baker and have identified my favorite recipes - recipes I will return to for years to come for holidays, birthdays and other special events.

Yesterday, I made the most amazing brownies I have ever tasted. The recipe belongs to one of my favorites, Nigella Lawson, and her book Feast: Food to Celebrate Life. She makes these speckled brownies for New Year’s Eve, arranging them as a tower and lighting them ablaze with candles. They are the most moist, gooey brownies I have ever encountered, and, as Martha would say, that’s a good thing; I absolutely hate dry brownies. I guess it helped that I used more than 3 sticks of butter and 13 ounces of the best chocolate I could afford.

I happened to forget to add the white chocolate until after I had already placed the pan in the oven. But I didn’t worry; I simply sprinkled some on top of the loose mixture and continued to let them bake. I also got a little over-zealous with the powdered sugar, but it was all due to the excitement of wanting to get it just right. I plan on making these for New Year’s Eve myself, and topping them with powdered sugar, edible silver baubles and sparkling candles. The recipe follows after the next photo.

Snow-Flecked Brownies

Ingredients

• 3 sticks plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 13 oz best quality semisweet or bittersweet chocolate
• 6 eggs
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1.5 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 9 oz white chocolate buttons, or good white chocolate, chopped
• About 2 teaspoons confectioners sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line the sides and base of a 13 x 9 x 2 inch baking pan with aluminum foil or baking parchment. (I used a glass dish and parchment, using a bit of butter to get the parchment to stick to the pan.)

Melt the butter and dark chocolate together in a large heavy-based pan over low heat. (I used a double boiler.)

In a bowl, beat the eggs together with the sugar and vanilla extract. Allow the chocolate mixture to cool a little, then add the egg and sugar mixture and beat well. Fold in the flour and salt. Then stir in the white chocolate buttons (I used chips). Beat to combine then scrape and pour the brownie mixture into the prepared pan.

Bake for about 25 minutes. You can see when the brownies are ready because the top dried to a slightly paler brown speckle, while the middle remains dark, dense and gooey. Even with such a big batch you do need to keep checking on it; the difference between gungey brownies and dry ones is only a few minutes. Remember, too, that they will continue to cook as they cool.

To serve, cut into squares while still warm and pile up on a large plate, sprinkling with confectioners sugar pushed with a teaspoon through a small sieve, and dotting with candles as you go. Set alight and enjoy the festive scene.

Please pardon my lack of posts in the last five days. It’s been one of those weeks where on the very same day your home loan gets approved so you can expand and renovate your kitchen your entire family agrees to visit YOU for Thanksgiving which is five weeks away. Five. Weeks. Away.

Needless to say, I’ve been buying ranges, choosing counter tops, testing out paint samples, picking bathroom floors, etc. All this stuff has to be done so that I can indeed cook my two - count them - TWO turkeys for Thanksgiving, as well as a whole fish and lots of other fixings. We plan to roast one turkey (in my new dual-fuel gas/convection Thermador oven) and smoke the other outside in the smoker.

Anyway - I have to get back to picking counter tops. More soon. I promise.

Yes, EAT Boutique.

It sounds simple but when the words spilled from my lips, I knew eating boutique was far more than just dining at fine, one-of-a-kind restaurants. I have dined at some very fine restaurants - like so many hard-core restaurant fans - and I’m a big fan of fine food and service. But this little endeavor of mine is about much more than fine dining.

To eat boutique is to eat local and sustainable and with true knowledge of where your food originates - you know, all the things that are hip in food these days. It’s also about supporting small business owners; it’s about independent restaurants (not big-company chain restaurants); it’s about supporting your local restaurateurs who love food, love service and want to know you, truly know their customers.

Ultimately, EAT Boutique is about nurturing a community of food fans who care about what we eat and who want to know the people behind the restaurants.

Who am I?

I like food. I spend my spare time reading cookbooks, researching recipes and menus, and actually cooking some very simple and some not-so-simple meals. I have folders full of menus I’ve planned and cooked, along with task list breakdowns, arranged hour-by-hour, with easy tasks for my husband, more challenging tasks for me, tasks for guests who offer their help, etc. Yes, I’m a little obsessed.

I also care about real food. Whole food. The good stuff. I’m not into that stuff you can buy at the drive-throughs - which Americans do more and more these days. I’m not into those big business restaurants where people file in for quick, prepackaged, microwave-warmed meals. I yearn for and need real food - vegetables, fruits, grains, natural sweets and protein. I joined a community supported agriculture program this past Spring, and get excited when pick-up day arrives and I get to enjoy everything an organic farm in New England offers during our few precious months of harvest. I love to pick up the food and engage with my friends there - to share recipes, tout recently discovered veggies and swap dining experiences.

I am not a professional cook. Let me be clear - I did not attend culinary school (like so many of my friends) and I do not cook in a restaurant (though I do help in the front of house of a fine dining establishment in Cambridge, Mass. a few days a week). I was attracted to that gig because I wanted to be closer to food, but closer from a service and community perspective.

My background is in community-building. I built some of the largest online communities that have existed during the short tenure of the Web. I love connecting with people online; finding folks you identify with; sharing your life, your experiences, with folks outside of your immediate geographic location.

I took a mini-break from technology several years ago to spend time exploring food, fine dining and the community experience of old-fashioned hospitality working in the hospitality business. Now I lead dual lives - that of online community diva and off-line food fan. I hope to join both passions in this little web site.

What should you expect to see here?

This site will cover the gamut of my food and fine dining explorations, and showcase the actual food fan and restaurateur community. To me, food matters most in context of the people who care about it. I hope to engage with other food fans and hear about your food experiences - the food, the service and the people you’ve met.

Now on to posting…