The Hipster Home

Whenever you step into a kitchen, you have the ability to prove to the world what magic can take place within it. I had once such experience on an unassuming Thursday night.

I was struck with how perfect and, I dare say, elegant an onion can be. Look at these thin cut, mandolin onion slices. They look like food lace and glowed in the pan. Concentric circles and a sting of the eyes to let you know they’re still onions, I’ll admit to admiring these guys for more than a second. (How delicate!)

If you cook down those perfectly cut onions and add tomatoes, spices, CSA carrots and turnips, it’s a delicious and relatively simple mid-week meal, compliments of a recipe by Tigers & Strawberries for Shalgam Masala.

Couple that with some Spicy Oven-Roasted Chickpeas (via Apartment Therapy) and you’ve got yourself a little Thursday slice o’ heaven.

Have a great weekend, y’all. See you next week.

Don’t you love it when good news comes in the form of an email? I sure do. Yesterday one such happy message popped up in the ole inbox and it brought about a the biggest bout of happy dances, hand claps and elation whoops this side of Valencia St.

(Is this not the most unappetizing bowl of soup you’ve ever seen? Such is my luck.)

My original pursuit, fulfilling an offer to make a sick friend soup, turned into a spastic exhibition of joy. Instead of ignoring the good news and bucking down, why not call the rest of my soup making what it is? Celebration Soup! (Stick with me here, folks.)

I’m not going to post the whole recipe for Michael Chiarello’s Roasted Butternut Squash Soup. I didn’t really change anything. After giving the recipe an initial once-over, I finally sat down to read it in it’s an entirety. Wait a sec, this is a friggen rabbit hole recipe!

You know the type. Starts off easy enough until you reach the ingredients list and it says “1 1/2 cups Roasted Winter Squash recipe.” So you skip down and read the recipe for this Roasted Winter Squash. A few seconds later, you’re greeted AGAIN with “2 teaspoons Toasted Spice Rub, recipe follows.” Ughface. This better be good. (It was.)

Let me break it down: I want to make this soup. But first I have to make the roasted squash mixture. But even before that I have to concoct the spices. Dagnabit recipe writer, I just want soup! What’s with the THREE recipes needed to make your deceptively short Roasted Butternut Squash Soup?!? Luckily I had everything on hand, and despite my initial frustrations, plowed ahead.

So that’s the start of my Celebration Soup. Not an auspicious takeoff, but the beginning was that of sheer amazement someone pushed this giganto batch of recipes through.

Working from the bottom of the webpage up, it was spice time! And these are the good guy spices: fennel, coriander, peppercorns, red chile flakes, salt, cinnamon, chili powder. The house was going to smell like a pizzeria and only an insane person wouldn’t be ok with that.  Look at that beautiful start of the toasted spice rub. It’s enough to make a girl want to cry (from not turning on the oven fan and inhaling heated red pepper).

With the spices out of the way, time for squash prep. Mid-peel, I heard a ding from my laptop upstairs in the craft loft indicating a new email. Generally I would ignore it but my curiosity got the better of me. Grabbing my iPhone off the kitchen table, I glanced at the email. What I saw next included “pleased” and “offer.” I threw down my iPhone and ran upstairs to read the whole thing.

WAHOO!!! I DID IT! I GOT THE JOB I VERY MUCH WANTED! Sure, it’s for a short 4 months but I’ll take that. Who wouldn’t want to work with the incredible people at Chronicle Books? It was (and is) my #1 heart’s desire. There’s no pretending, I wasn’t just happy with the news of a job offer but I was also incredibly thankful that it wasn’t rejection. With 5 months and 1 full read of “What Color is Your Parachute?”  under my belt, it was time for a change. I’d come within an angel hair’s of getting several other really sweet gigs but  I’m convinced that this is what the universe had waiting for me. Happy, happy, happy! After a few appropriate text messages and phone calls to family and friends, I had to get back at the task at hand. Soup? Nope, it’s a celebration! Struggling to focus on what I was doing, I decided the hell with it, this soup was gonna be a party for 1. So what’s next?

The spice rub is all done. It must be time to roast the butternut squash. Remember these guys from the CSA box? Turns out they are a combined weight of 3 pounds which is exactly what the recipe specified. One hour of caramelized cubed squash, butter, spice mix, some fresh sage, balsamic vinegar, sugar and brown sugar (sub for unsulfured molasses) later, the Roasted Winter Squash recipe is rarin’ to go.

FINALLY, TO THE ACTUAL SOUP. It really was a snap to put together… once I’d completed the other more strenuous parts of my mission. I ground up the squash bits with my wand mixer, chopped up some CSA carrots, and an onion. They sautéed with a cinnamon stick until soft and then doused in chicken stock, simmered for awhile longer. Cinnamon stick removed, squash added, salt/pepper to taste. Soup poured in a thermos for easy transport and I was OFF for delivery.

I rushed to get this soup out the door. After all, it was time for celebration cocktails.

It’s been six weeks. SIX WEEKS. Does it feel that long? At some point during the CSA drought, someone (can’t remember who) said to me something (can’t remember what exactly) about me being a “girl obsessed with her CSA box.” I’m experiencing mixed feelings here, folks. Is that what you think I am? A women driven to obsessively chronicle the contents of her local farm’s gifts on a semi-weekly basis? Or perhaps I am a person attempting to improve my photography skills while sharing the delicious possibilities in a box of fruit and veggies. Either way, neither estimation is entirely off and I’ll happily continue this tradition with photos and the occasional recipe. Win all around! (Really? Obsessed? Don’t make me sound like a Beyonce movie!)

lemons, navel oranges, mandarin oranges, stir fry mix, dill, green onions, carrots, butternut squash, salad turnips, arugula

I’ll abstain from recipe sharing this week. Most of these items can be best enjoyed with a good scrub and chop. I WILL show you how to enjoy an orange without drips and minimum sticky fingers. My family calls it eating an orange “Florida Orange Style.” Thinking about it now, that name doesn’t even make sense. But the method does.

Winter inevitably evokes in me my favorite parts of growing up in the sunshine state. Everyone knew you didn’t buy oranges from the orchards until after a cold snap. That makes the oranges sweeter. And once that cold snap hits, I knew my after school snacks would show up in the form of an unlikely orange juice box (Sorta.)

How to eat an orange Florida Orange Style

What you’ll need:

• 1 juicy orange, (I used navel from this week’s box)
• a sharp knife
• a sense of humor
• if without, a child
• if without a sense of humor or a child, someone else’s child

First give the orange a good scrub. You want clean skin.

Use the knife to cut around the stem. Angle your knife so that it cuts a cone and you have a little hat, removable from the fruit.

Carefully cut inside the orange without poking through the skin. You want to maximize juiciness.

You’ll want to enjoy it now so go ahead and grasp the orange with both hands, put it up to your face…

and SUCK! That’s right, I said SUCK. This is where the sense of humor comes in. Or the little kid. If you are too proud to suck on an orange, first of all you are missing out. Second of all, a little kid wins because that booger will get to enjoy a delicious treat. If I can do it, you can too. Just once. And if you figure the payoff isn’t worth sucking on an orange, fair enough.

Slurp, squeeze and suck until there is no juice left. At this point your lips are tingly from the acid in the peel. If you did it right, the orange skin has started to rip around the cut edges.

When you’re satisfied there is no more juice to be had, find the little rips around the hole and pull. Open that orange up, turn the skin inside out and chomp away.

When all is said and done, eating an orange Florida Orange Style leaves you with lightly sticky fingers, no drips and a full tummy. Ah, satisfaction.

How do you embarrassingly eat your favorite fruit or veggie?

What a life. Another week, another batch of internet temptations revealed as available for purchase. When you la la love it but just can throw down the cash, I wwwant that! This weekly feature is my small corner of the world to wax poetic on amazing products found on the web and in some people’s homes, but not mine.

(photo by Drew)

Although I frequent Laughing Squid at least once a day, Scott’s blog is the last place I ever expected to find something for THH. Laughing Squid always has interesting pop culture, technology and news.  Bakeware? Apparently LS even rocks that. Enter: Helvetica cookie cutters, which I really wwwant. Beverly Hsu made many a designer/baker’s dream a reality. These guys aren’t actually available for purchase yet; the ultimate achievement in an I wwwant that! item.

Is there something in your bag that you use every day and have owned for years? Have you tried to replace it but failed? Such is the story of my Kenneth Cole wallet. Originally a high school Christmas present , I’ve attempted to dethrone it only to come crawling back again. It’s in great shape, and still completely functional but there are always other shiny new wallets to tempt me. Even though old leatha’ prevails, look at this beast! This L.A.M.B. perfection came to my attention in the form of an Okay Great blog post.  (While we’re at it, can we have a heart to heart about Okay Great’s amazing lamp post? I absolutely wwwant all of them!)

Blame the many Martha Stewart books on my desk. Blame Remodelista. Blame el nino. Blame an unswerving devotion to brunch. I want this part shabby chic, part modernist pitcher for fresh squeezed OJ, bloody mary mix, or a bouquet of flowers. Oh Emile Henry, please tell me you wouldn’t actually charge me $50 for the pleasuring of serving with such a lovely item?

Part of the Christmas tradition that was woefully missing from this year’s postponed celebration (due to wedding) was my typical week-long devotion to puzzle completion. Yes, I did receive a puzzle as a gift. No, I wouldn’t have had time to work on it. Seeing the test pattern puzzle on Swiss Miss made me a) sad I had no puzzle time and b) energized that such a colorful challenge waits for me for next Christmas. Begone, Thomas Kinkade!  Things of Colour might market puzzles as boring but I heartily believe this would be my perfect family-time distraction.

Happy Lady Eats loves pomelos but these THH eyes were locked on the rather retro Fishs Eddy Guest Check tray. What’s not to love about giving a longer life to a diner waitress’ workhorse?

There is one moment in time where all of San Francisco bands together in anticipation of the Next Big Announcement. Apple’s Tuesday media events grab our attention, won’t let go and gives us one day to have something in common.  As sfgirlbybay pointed out, we were all rather aghast at the name choice for this newest product so she decided to celebrate her favorite Apple product, the iPhone. I’m so glad she did because I wouldn’t know about the fantastic mobile phone case maker she highlighted, Uncommon. All the skins are created by artists and customizable so you can take one piece of art and showcase your favorite parts. Above is an example from knitter extraordinaire, Magda Sayeg.  I absolutely adore living in a world where you can make your technology look like an afghan from your childhood rec room.

Honorable Mention: Apartment Therapy spotted the perfect kid’s table. It’s a xylophone! But not an old, boring, colorless adult instrument, it’s the fun child-version. Problem: I don’t have a kid. And wouldn’t the slats be a problem? (BONUS: The people who make the xylophone table are called Jellio. Go check out their website. Your inner child thanks you.)

One Thing I’ve learned in my 20+ years on this planet is that when someone excitedly sends you a recipe and asks if you want to make it, you say YES. Such things cannot be ignored. To be truthful, I’d never envisioned myself cooking duck or having anything to do with that particular meat outside of a restaurant. THH guest blogger, Juliette Melton, had sent a link to a New York Times recipe for Really Easy Duck Confit. A time and date was set and ho’boy, we ate well. Lesson learned: duck confit is really fricken tasty. Double points for serving it with a duck fat veggie mix and a simple dino kale.

The hard part (it seemed to me) was finding where to buy 8 duck legs. Julie was up to the task and I was lucky enough to have her bring over the pre-chilled salt/pepper/bay leaf/thymed bird legs. That’s step 1. Let’s just jump right into an adjusted recipe…

Really Easy Duck Confit

adapted from a New York Times recipe by Melissa Clark

• 1 1/2 teaspsoons kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 bay leaf, crumbled
• 8 duck legs, rinsed and patted dry

Combine the salt, pepper, thyme and bay leaf in a bowl. Sprinkle over the duck. (The original recipe didn’t specify but Julie says she only had enough mixture to sprinkle on the top of the duck legs. Top being the opposite of the fat side which there is NO mistaking. Eww, fatty! The duck legs should lay in a single layer on a baking pan. Cover it with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 24 hours.

The next day, preheat your oven to 325 F.

You’ll first need to render most of the fat off the fatty side of the meat. Heat one well-seasoned skillet (or two as we needed) over medium-high heat. If you’ve got splatter screens, bust those guys out. If you don’t, beware a mess.

Place the 8 duck legs in the hot pans and allow to cook for approximately 20 minutes. You’re looking for a 1/4 inch deep fat pool. Once they’ve cooked at least 10 minutes, you may want to check the browning process and rotate the legs around the skillet to cook evenly. If you try to pick one up and the skin sticks, let it keep cooking!

Since we used two pans, we placed the duck legs upside down in one large roasting pan. Pour the duck fat from each skillet into the pan. Cover the pan with foil and set in your pre-heated oven. Roast for 2 hours. (*see veggie recipe below*) Remove the foil and roast for 1 more hour until browned and lovely.

Remove the duck legs from the fat, place on a paper towel and tent with foil until the rest of your dinner is ready. Reserve the duck fat for more delicious projects at a later date!

During the foil removal, we snagged a few spoonfuls of duck fat to use on top of an improvised hearty veggie roast. How does one make a veggie roast? Easy!

A Duck Fat Veggie Roast

recipe created by Laura Brunow Miner & Co.

• 1 leek, well rinsed and cut into 1/2 inch segments
• 2 potatoes, cubed
• 3 large carrots, cut into 1/2 inch segments
• 1 onion, coarsely chopped
• 1 tsp+ rosemary
• 2 tsp+ thyme
• salt and pepper, to taste

Combine the prepared vegetables and herbs in a roasting pan while the duck is cooking at 325 F and covered in foil. When the time comes to take the foil of the duck after 2 hours, remove the duck pan out of the oven and ladle 4-5 spoonfuls of excess duck fat into the vegetable roasting pan. Stir the veggies around until evenly coated with fat. When you put the duck back in to cook, uncovered, for 1 hour, add the pan of vegetables to the oven as well. Continute to cook until the duck is finished and the veggies are soft and caramelized.

Serve the duck with veggies, some simply prepared dino kale and crusty bread. Presto! You’ve got a fantastic meal for you and a few friends.

Now for the next fun task: what does one do with a jar full of duck fat in their refrigerator?? Cooking tips? Suggestions?