Delectable Dessert Collection

Naomi and her handmade braided sweet bread

 As some of you may know by now, my home town is Elma Washington. I have lived all over the world - Geneva, Paris, New York, Mexico City - but little Elma Washington is my home town. So in honor of my hometown I created a new traditional treat for the Elma Summer Festival held in Elma Washington every August. 

I remember when Elma had its Slug Festival. Then it was changed to the Blackberry Festival, and now it looks like that has been changed to the Outlaw Festival. After careful thought, I realized that both 'slugs'and óutlaws' are not good for the image of poor little Elma. Slugs are disgusting, and we certainly do not want to glorify criminals or outlaws. 

It is always challenging to start a new project, one that I have never tried before. This might seem shocking to people who know me in the real world, but I doubt myself all the time. I never really know if I am doing things right. I am very good at gathering information,  but sometimes I am just too lazy to flesh out things. The problem is that I take on so much, I do so much, that I cannot give all of my projects the attention they deserve. Well, that is my moment of self loathing...

Hello Everybody,

Coming to a breakfast table near you

If you read my gardening blog, you would know that blackberry season in Washington State (late July-August) is one of my favorite times of the year. I am a forager, like a soldier wandering the landscape for provisions, I raid our blackberry bushes with the boundless energy of a toddler. I do not tire of it. My eyes constantly scanning the bushes for hidden bundles of sweet blackberries hanging from the vine.Blackberries are free in Washington State! Anyone can pick them. But no one can pick them the way I do. 

So hop on over to Naomi´s Garden if you want to hear all about it. I do not post too much on my gardening blog right now because all I am growing are potatoes, carrots, strawberries, grape tomatoes and basil. When  we get a house, or a small farm, I will write more about my adventures in the garden. For now, it is Naomi´s adventures in the kitchen. 

I know that people have been giving Paula Dean a lot of crap because her food is a heart attack waiting to happen. Lets be honest for a second,  is Southern Comfort food really the kind of thing reasonable people eat every day? Or even once a week for that matter. She is not shoving her fatty food down anyone's throat.

In all seriousness though, after watching Paula Dean research her family history on a show called Who Do You Think You Are?, I came to adore this woman. I never had a mother. If I could have one, I would pick Paula. She seems like the kind of person who is easy to talk to. So yes, I am a Yankee who likes Paula Dean. I admit it. Deal with it.

Most of us know that the British are not exactly known for their food. I have never been to the UK, but I do have many friends who live there. I hear immigrants greatly improved the British culinary experience enormously. 


Former French president Jaque Chirac once said, "One cannot trust people whose cuisine is so bad." Within earshot of reporters he went on, "After Finland, it is the country with the worst food."

The book I am reading

A few days ago I stumbled upon a charming cook book from my local library titled:  Rise To The Occasion. The book was written by the owners of Dallas Restaurant - Rise No. 1. And what do they do exactly? They make Souffés! Sweet  Souffés, Savory  Souffés and cute dainty Souffés . When I think of the word Soufflé, the first thing that comes to mind is a movie I had to watch in a French Cinema Course, La Nouvelle Vague...the movie was  À bout de souffle (1960) featuring American actress Jean Seberg (who later commit suicide in Paris, 1979) and Jean Paul Belmondo, who turned into a dirty old man pervert in dire need of Botox injections.Yeah...okay...so I went off on a tangent there. I do that sometimes. Seth McFarlane needs to hire me as a writer for Family Guy. Back to the topic of this blog...Soufflé


Wikipedia: A soufflé (French: [su.fle]) is a lightly baked cake made with egg yolks and beaten egg whites combined with various other ingredients and served as a savory main dish or sweetened as a dessert. The word soufflé is the past participle of the French verb souffler which means "to blow up" or more loosely "puff up"—an apt description of what happens to this combination of custard and egg whites.

The other day I went to the local library to pick up some materials. I checked out The French Chef, Julia Child. She shows us how to roast a chicken, make Boef Bourguignon and Tripe (cow stomach).

The Tripe video was nauseating . Cow stomach! Barf

Seared Roast

The difference between baking and roasting? - the thing being cooked. If it is a liquid and you want it to become solid, then you bake it. If the food is solid and you want to cook it - then it is a roast. Baking and Roasting are both the same thing, applying dry heat to cook. The only difference is the object being cooked.

The simplest approach to roasting is placing seafood, veggies, and seasoned meat on a roasting pan, and sliding it into an oven temperature 400 or higher. The greatest benefit of high heat cooking is that foods develop a well seared exterior with a juicy savor, rare or medium rare interior. This is exactly how I like my steak. Be careful not to over cook them. Nothing is worse that rubbery meat. Roasting meat can require split second timing, you have to really baby-sit the meat. The major limitation is that high heat cooking does not work well with larger roasts. For example, large meats like Turkey or Leg of Lamb will be burnt and crusty on the outside by the time the inside is cooked. Frequent oven cleaning becomes a problem. Juices splatter and the flesh smokes the interior.

Tonight we will be having homemade chicken pot pie. I made the crust this morning, if you do not know how to make a chicken pot pie crust, go to my previous blog about how to make a Spinach Quiche. I wrote the crust recipe there.








1 cup chopped onion
2 cubes chicken consome
.5 cup chopped carrots
.5 cup frozen peas
1 cup flour
1 tbs cornstarch
1 tbs salt
2 chopped chicken breasts
.5 cup 2% milk
4 tbs butter

Very Proud of My Braided Bread

Black Cherry Glazed Chicken Breast

Today we took the two boys and the double stroller to Cornucopia Days, a festival mid-July located in Kent Washington. It is a celebration of food and harvest. Although most of our vendors are from Washington State, some do come from other parts of the United States. Cornucopia Days was much better this year than it was the last time I went, two years ago.

I was happy to see a lot more originality in vendors, displays and products sold. When I visit vendors, I first pay attention to see originality. Then I look for quality and uniqueness of their booth. I want to see that they care about their product enough to make their booths special and unique. I like to see the artist expressed in details. I do not care to see people selling meaningless crap. If that were the case I would move back to Brooklyn New York.

Getting a booth is not cheap. Last time I checked it was more than $300 dollars. I is certainly higher than that if one reserves a space more than 10x10. The price is high enough to make sure people care about their product and presentation.

Naomi Making Pesto in the Food Processor

Naomi's Peach Cake Brulee

After the babies were put to bed, I made my first recipe from Dominique and Cindy Duby's book Creme Brulee - 50 Decadent Recipes. The recipe I made can be found on page 18 of their book. Their recipes was Pear Cake Brulee. I sent my husband off to get me some of the supplies I needed. Their recipe called for 1/2 cup pear juice.

I brought me Peach Juice. I changed only one ingredient from their recipe. Other than that, I am following their exact instructions.

This recipe had more ingredients and was more complex. After I whipped it up and put it in the oven, I realized that it would need some candied peaches to go ontop. The candied peaches are entirely my recipe.

Cheese and Bacon Quiche

I went to Target to buy two smaller ramekins for the ten  Crème brûlées  that I plan on making from Dominique and Cindy Duby's book -   Crème brûlée - 50 Decadent Recipes. This morning I woke up and decided to make my husband a quick quiche for breakfast. I used one of my new Ramekin. It was only $2.99. Here is my recipe in photos. Enjoy!

• Three Eggs
• Three ounces Mexican Cheese
• Two ounces chopped onion
• Two strips of bacon

I used some of the left over crust I made for the spinach quiche a few days ago. This recipe was very simple.