I can’t really say why I stopped writing entries for the Newfield Street Kitchen after my Global Donuts post in late July 2019. It’s not like I stopped cooking, experimenting, entertaining or even traveling last summer. To be honest, there were so many times that I thought about writing a blog post about a recipe, a meal, a party, or a trip, but I was missing the photos to include, the time to write, and/or the energy to think. But now on the cusp of the New Year, I’ve been spending some time ruminating on my happiness, my passions, and my regrets. Since writing about my food-related experiences is a confluence of my passions and my talents, I need to do more of it in the coming year.
So, how did I spend the last eighteen months?
I renewed my Eat Your Books account twice after my generous sister-in-law gifted it to me for my 2018 birthday. Use of my account resulted in multiple recipe tests from the Serious Eats website. I tried the frosting recipe from the Gramercy Tavern German Chocolate Cake, which was amazing on cupcakes. I can’t wait until one of my Texas friends finally comes up to visit so that I can attempt the full cake. I also cooked up a batch of blood orange Beaujolais marmalade while I took sometime off in December 2019 at a college friend’s house in eastern Pennsylvania. I pretty much destroyed their kitchen, but the resulting marmalade was so good! (Probably because I misread the recipe and used more wine in place of the water.) Finally, during cheap raspberry season, I cooked up a batch of raspberry-cocoa jam, but did not water process can the jars so I had to keep them in the refrigerator to stay fresh. That was a second attempt at the recipe, and it was just as good as the first time.
I also revisited some of my other favorite online recipes. The white chocolate mashed potatoes recipe from Epicurious did not work out as well as it had before; it was sweeter than I had remembered. And that was pretty disgusting. Fortunately, the buttermilk blue cheese dressing recipe for the fully loaded wedge salad that my father found on Serious Eats turned out flawlessly both times I made it. And I would have thought that it would be pretty disgusting because it contained equal parts mayonnaise and sour cream; I am really not fond of mayonnaise!
My New England aunt turned me on to the David Lebovitz blog because it has a lot of cocktail recipes on it. While I meant to try each of the cocktail links that she sent me, I only made the orange bitters from the website recipe. Even though I had never made bitters before, the recipe was so well-composed that they turned out really well! They made great gifts for friends. I pre-ordered two copies of the author’s latest book (published in early March 2020) from the local independent bookstore so that I could gift one to the aunt who turned me on to the blog. So stay tuned for some of those cocktail experiments!
As far as entertaining went, I hosted the largest ever annual Holiday Dessert party in 2019. We had so many people that at, at one point, we split up into two rooms so that everyone could hear someone talk. While I had thought that I could have two or three mini-parties to celebrate the winter holidays in 2020, the infection rates in my state turned out to be too high to even consider that possibility. Unfortunately, there was also an intense work project that kept me from even baking my usual complement of Christmas cookies for family and friends.
A socially distant supper club started in late June 2020 because the security team I work with did something extraordinary before the pandemic to keep one of our most important projects on track. We met four times between June and November before the situation got too difficult to continue. Between a Mediterranean themed dinner in June and a potluck dinner in November, we also had a Scotch tasting party and a Old World Red Wine tasting party. One of the best new recipes was the muhammara from the 101 Cookbooks website, although I also had a lot of fun with mini cupcake experiments from the Prohibition Bakery cookbook. The cake recipes weren’t stellar but the bourbon frosting recipe was definitely a keeper. We even had a chocolate peanut butter birthday cake to celebrate August and September birfthdays, although we put candles on individual slices so no one would be blowing across the entire cake.
I planned an extensive cocktail menu for the Girls Trip to western Pennsylvania in October 2020 because we were lodging far from town. Plans included an elderflower spritz, a paper plane, a classic negroni, and an aperol negroni. So, of course, I brought the ingredients for all of those experiments - with the exception of sparkling wine, which was being brought by the NYC contingent. For variety, I also brought lavender liqueur and gin from a local distilleries, as well as vodka from a California distillery, rye, cans of V8, and two shrub mixes. It was hard to tell what was the favorite drink of the trip, although the girls always wanted to try whatever oddity I had fixed for myself. I was a bit disappointed that the Guinness Hot Chocolate wasn’t as popular as I had hoped, especially given the cold weather, but the recipe did make an awful lot! (Note to self: cut the recipe next time.)
Occasionally, I took advantage of the remote work situation to spend time with a college friend in eastern Pennsylvania. Because my friend worked an evening shift, during my November 2020 trip, I cooked most of the evening meals for us. We had cioppino, pumpkin curry soup, fennel white bean minestrone, red curry lentils, pan seared salmon, and other good stuff from my family’s cookbook. It was really nice to have the opportunity to introduce someone else to some of my favorite recipes. In fact, I did a menu and a grocery list for the following week, leaving copies of the requisite recipes so that they could continue the fun after I went home.
Finally, there were absolutely alcohol infusion experiments! Because the kumquats weren’t all that popular at the 2019 Holiday Dessert Party, I supplemented what I had and turned that into a batch of kumquat liqueur. I basically used the family limoncello recipe, substituting chopped kumquats for lemon zest. It worked out really well. Even Little Z herself thought so! The Buddhacello Batch 2020 in December 2020 was inspired by Little Z. She found a Buddha hand fruit at a market near her new home, which prompted me to look in the fancy supermarket for one. They had quite a few, so I picked the one that had the most surface area and smelled the most floral. That started soaking in an organic gluten free vodka almost immediately; however, because lower proof vodka has a slower extraction rate than higher proof grain alcohol, I’ll have to let that infuse for roughly two months. For Christmas this year, one of the girls generously gifted me a glass infusion vessel, along with two infusion mixes and a recipe book. I almost immediately started the Rose Lemon Gin infusion kit, and approximately 72 hours later I had a beautiful pink gin with lemon and rose notes. It made a lovely gin and tonic, and I can’t wait to see how it does in a French 75.
So that catches everyone up on the months missing since Global Donuts last July. I’m optimistic that with a new focus on using my talents to bring myself joy, it won’t be long before I write again. At the very least, I owe you all some insight into how the Buddhacello Batch 2020 turned out...
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