Sunday Kind Of Love - When I Heard The Learn'd Astronomer by Walt Whitman

When I heard the learn'd astronomer;

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me;

When I was shown the charts and the diagrams, to add, divide, and

        measure them;

When I, sitting, heard the astronomer, where he lectured with much

        applause in the lecture-room,

How soon, unaccountable, I became tired and sick;

Till rising and gliding out, I wander'd off by myself,

  In the mystical moist night -air,

and from time to time,

Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

Brown Sugar Maple Picard Cookies

modified slightly from this recipe in Bon Appetit December 2000

1 cup unsalted butter, room temp

1 cup brown sugar, packed

1/3 cup  real maple syrup, ( the good stuff)

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 cups AP flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

Royal icing for awkward, untrained decoration (optional)

In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Then whisk in the maple syrup, the egg, and the vanilla extract until combined. Whisk in the baking powder and the salt, then add the flour and mix until it comes together to form a dough. Cover and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes (and hour is better).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, and remove the dough from the refrigerator. Roll out the dough to about 1/3 inch thickness and cut out the cookies with the cutter. Bake in the oven for 10-12 minutes depending on how crispy you like your cookies. Enjoy straight from the oven or cooled and decorated. 

Yeild 25 Picards

You can find the Facepalming Picard  cookie cutter here.

Midweek Marvels - Peanut Butter Jam Session

So I realize that this is probably cheating but... I found a new Ben and Jerry's flavor that I just have to share with you. It's called Peanut Butter Jam Session, and it's a deceivingly simple combination of flavors in a simply gorgeous way. Peanut Butter Jam Session combines Ben and Jerry's already wonderful peanut butter ice cream with swirls of crunchy peanut butter and an intensely flavored raspberry jam. This combination ordinarily wouldn't spark my interest, (What's so exciting about peanut butter and jam, right?) but it's executed in such an elegant way that the flavors hum together with the harmony of an old standard.
It's hard to pin down exactly what it is about this flavor that makes it such a hit,( is it the just right level of tart-sweet from the raspberry jam? Is it the perfect bite of salty crunch from the chunky peanut butter? Is it the possibility of secretly added narcotics?) but something in the combination is sooo satisfying.

I was really surprised by how much I loved this flavor, I typically rate fruity desserts lower just based on personal preference, but here... I'll even be so bold as to add it to my top 10 favorites. (What? Wut?!) I may be 77 flavors in, but I'm happy to find that every once and a while Ben and Jerry's can still produce a flavor that will dazzle and delight even the oldest of fans. Give it a try!

August Instagram - Food Truck Life

I got an instagram account last month with an on the road photo blogging project in mind.  Now I don't quite have the iphone situation all figured out yet, but here's a look at life so far.

The first two weeks of August were pretty slow, the truck was off the road while my bosses took a way overdue vacation, so I had more time on my hands for the finer things in life.

Outside things were pretty exciting. We got a new Doctor!

I was freaking out! Were you freaking out?!

 And there was a blue moon. Also exciting - though of course it looked just the same.

My boyfriend and I started watching/binge watched/completely caught up on Breaking Bad, and in the madness I found myself suspicious of every chicken place ever...

(Wait, we don't count, right? I'm gonna say we don't count...)

Then of course came Tomato Art Fest.

By mid August it was time to work again.

 5am - time to make the biscuits. I made 400 that day.

Using the street art to remind me where I parked downtown!

All lined up at Live On The Green

 At Riff's Food Truck Jam. It's every Friday night and sooo much fun! There's beer, and bands, and free parking; it's Nashville's best kept secret!

Chef Karl's (super secret off menu) fried okra. It will blow your mind!

Perks of the business; you get to try food from all the other food trucks! Smoked pork tacos, yes yes YES!

And that was the month of August!

You can find me on instagram at Madame_magar

Midweek Marvels - Dobrova Rose Hip Marmalade

I'll admit it, I was seduced by the word "rose hip". Something about it, two words so familiar in a certain way put together to form a name, it's always been appealing to me. Most of the time I see this word rose hip come up it's in a sort of herbal hippy setting, 'rose hip oil, to sooth your tension', so seeing the word wrapped around a Bosnian label for marmalade (here another appealing word, much more exotic than say 'jam') was a combination I just couldn't resist, even though I found it sharing a shelf with some of the more seedier looking sideshow attractions in the ethnic food aisle.

The sad part though is that for all the flourish of the title, not to mention the build up in my head, there really wasn't much to it. You know that flavor you ignore that every prepackaged, store bought jam has? The underlying base flavor of sugar and pectin and cooked fruit that you sort of block out and coast through on your way to strawberry or, apricot? That's all there was to taste. Nothing even fragrant, or herbal, or flowery. Just sort of... sugar held together. I even licked it directly off the knife to double check if maybe my biscuit choice was overwhelming a delicate whisper of a flavor, but the experience was the same. Tumbleweeds. As detrimental as this is to my fantasy of some delicious, exotic rose hip flavor, I've decided not to be satisfied with one bad experience, I mean wikipedia says that in some places it's a big deal, which you know... could mean something... If anyone has any suggestions of higher quality/ more flavorful rose hip confections please let me know. Rose hip WE SHALL MEET AGAIN!!!

Sunday Kind Of Love - Happiness by Raymond Carver

So early it's still almost dark out.

I'm near the window with coffee,

and the usual early morning stuff

that passes for thought.

When I see the boy and his friend

walking up the road

to deliver the newspaper.

They wear caps and sweaters,

and one boy has a bag over his shoulder.

They are so happy

they aren't saying anything, these boys.

I think if they could, they would take

each other's arm.

It's early in the morning,

and they are doing this thing together.

They come on, slowly.

The sky is taking on light,

though the moon still hangs pale over the water.

Such beauty that for a minute

death and ambition, even love,

doesn't enter into this.

Happiness. It comes on

unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really,

any early morning talk about it.

* I would also like to add how happy it makes me that we live in a ridiculous, random world where for some reason, somewhere on the internet you can find Terence Stamp aka General Zod, reading this poem. I don't know if I've ever used this space to confess my ridiculous, undying love for all things superman, (if not, then I'm sure we'll talk about this soon), but the connection only makes this poem all the more perfect. If you can remember your Myspace password, you can listen to it here in all it's campy glory.

Buttermilk Thyme Biscuits/ Bacon + Egg Early Morning Sandwich

1200 grams AP Flour
24 grams Salt
60 grams Sugar
42 grams Baking powder
17 grams Baking soda
330 grams Unsalted Butter, cold and cut into cubes
75 grams Bacon grease, cooled
720 grams Full Fat Buttermilk
3 grams Fresh thyme, chopped
 Melted butter for brushing

In a large mixing bowl combine the first five ingredients and mix well so that the leavening is evenly distributed in the flour. Cut in the butter and the bacon grease with either a pastry cutter or your fingers ( I personally prefer using my hands), then add they thyme and the buttermilk and mix to combine, ( either a wooden spoon or your fingers will work here, once again I prefer to just get in there). Roll ( or press out) out the dough until it's about a 1 inch thickness all around and cut and re-roll biscuits as desired. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet, brush the tops with melted butter and baking in a 425 degree oven for 12-14 minutes until golden brown and fragrant. Makes about 24 towering biscuits (like mine), or 36 human sized biscuits.

To make a breakfast sandwich, peel the biscuit from the middle of those flaky layers, add bacon, a sunny side egg and enjoy!