Passover Recipes

Here are some from the NYTimes.

Interesting selection of recipes here at The Jewish Daily Forward.

And Martha Stewart's amazing offerings.

Finally, Epicurious!

Cayenne Mashed With A Side of Rings

Part of an ongoing culinary art project dedicated to my friends, Artist, Sarah Ashley Longshore and Jewelry Designer, Amanda Jaron - to whom my wildest, food fantasies begin and end with my proud membership of 'The Big Gaudy Ring Hoarders Society' (TBGRHS).

Cayenne Mashed Recipe:

Fill a big pot with lots of cold, fresh water

Salt

Bring to boil

Fill till overflowing with peeled white potatoes

Boil until tender

Mash with hand-masher

Add plenty of salt and cracked black pepper

Butter

and gunk gunk gunk of milk

Heat skillet with more butter

Fry up the mashed potatoes with a generous amount of cayenne pepper.

Top with another pat of butter

(be sure to wear your 'big gaudy rings' while eating this....tastes better that way...and you'll look sterling too)

-Patti Friday

Breaking Design News

Anna Spiro of Black and Spiro and my Blogging friend (Absolutely Beautiful Things) will be featured in the May 2010 issue of Canadian House and Home Magazine! I can't wait to get my hands on a copy. It will be so wonderful to read about someone we have all come to know and love over the last few years. (In other Design/Packaging news.....Wasaga Beach Coffee, the certified organic & fair-trade coffee that I branded is a hit here in The Beach!) Tastes delish too. LPxo

Cooking With Stella

A lighthearted, satirical, social comedy about an unsuspecting couple in the Canadian Diplomatic Service posted to New Delhi who inherit a household of Indian servants headed by the wily, charming... and totally inspiring cook - Stella.

I can only imagine the luscious sets, landscapes and colour in this new movie. Production Designer, Tamara Deverell (top photo), studied Renaissance art and architecture in Florence, and design and painting at the Emily Carr Institute of Art. She worked as an art director with renowned production designers François Séguin and Carol Spier, on such films as Crash and Existenz, both directed by David Cronenberg. She was also the art director on X Men, and on Guillermo del Toro‘s Mimic. Her work as a production designer covers a wide range of periods and styles, and includes the Eloise at the Plaza television movies, and the mini series Sounder and A Feast for all Saints. She was the production designer for Deepa Mehta‘s comedy Bollwood Hollywood, for Breakfast with Scot, director Laurie Lynd and also for THE Burning Season, director Harvey Crossland — which was shot in India. She is currently designing the ABC series Happy Town. Her four months in New Delhi researching and designing Cooking with Stella were a professional and personal highlight.

Stella Elizabeth Matthews has been a cook in the Canadian High Commission in New Delhi for 30 years. She is brilliant as a cook, and brilliant at creatively padding her salary - with a few pilfered items, some minor overcharging, and a special phone-order duty free business. A newly posted Canadian diplomatic couple Michael and Maya arrive with their baby and, after an initial jolt when she learns that Michael will be staying home as "diplomatic housewife" while Maya goes off to work, everything goes swimmingly for Stella. Michael was a chef in Ottawa and he is longing to learn authentic Indian cooking. Stella agrees to be his "cooking guru". But Stella's cozy domestic set-up implodes when Tannu, an honest nanny, joins the household, and threatens to expose Stella's deceptions. Eventually Stella wins Tannu's full cooperation (and then some!). This unlikely partnership embarks on a much grander, riskier scam, which seems to bring disaster. An unexpected kind of justice is found, but not until the guru-student relationship between Stella and Michael has been sorely tested. Michael has learned many important lessons from his teacher ...including glorious traditional South Indian cooking. And Stella? Well... let's just say dreams sometimes come true in unexpected ways.

Official 'Cooking With Stella' website.

Stella's Recipes here.

Country: Canada

Year: 2009

Language: English, Hindi

Runtime: 103 minutes

Format: Colour/35mm

Rating: PG

Opens March 19, 2010

The Love & Care of Tea

I think the majority of us take our food and the source of our foods for granted. (I know I do, but I'm really working on changing that.) Case in point. Our tea. (did you know that tea is the most consumed beverage in the world after water?...I didn't know that until recently...and hey, I didn't know that 'goat' was the most consumed meat in the world until I watched Oprah last week...Food Inc. documentary) But look at these photographs of loose tea. Examine the detail and glorious colours of the fresh ingredients. These teas come all the way from around the world, lovingly, carefully harvested, rolled, blended, shipped, packaged.....what a process and journey! How can this lovely plant become our lovely cup of serenity? Little bags of 'art'. (place your mouse over each picture to see the name of each loose tea blend) Truly sippy good. Amazing isn't it? (you may purchase your tea from my company here.) LPxo

This Calls For Candy Apples

My blogging friend Suzanne is a real keeper. She is an incredible wordsmith, entrepreneur and friend and someone I can always count on to 'keeping it real, grounded and honest'. I don't tell her enough how much I enjoy her blog, her sharing, her caring. Suzanne is so authentic. No bullshit. If you haven't been attending her Monday Morning Meetings, I highly recommend them. It's such a great way to start a blogging week, or any week for that matter...And! She serves food! I've been wanting to contribute to her 'new week' culinary treats and decided to give something that would make this 'Farmer's Wife' feel summery. (her and I live in the same kind of geographic climate....think Siberia.) Aha! This calls for candy apples. And what does all this mean? It's a gentle virtual nudge to Suzanne: You've got a subject, you've got fans, you can write, you can sew, you can cook, you craft.......Write a Book !!!!!! "At Home With The Farmer's Wife"......what are you waiting for? Hugs Suzanne. Love Your Canadian Vardoger. LPxo

Gluten-Free Gingerbread Cake With Lemon Glaze

You will never know it's gluten-free. It melts in your mouth and your tastebuds will beg for more. Perfect with steeped tea. Recipe for this delectable cake is over at Taylor Darling. Yummeeeeeee. (the glaze is droolmaking lemony good)