Last Minute Invitation...

To come see what was in all of these boxes...




Unveiling party, Friday Night, 6 PM onward...

616 Lorimer Street, at Skillman.
L to Lorimer, 2 blocks north of the intersection of Lorimer and Metropolitan.

Minor Casualties

At least he seems upbeat about it!

Riess Enamelware

One of our much-anticipated products, Reiss enameled steel from Austria, has arrived. These pots are carefully made in a socially and environmentally green factory in Yppsitz, Austria, and are BEE-YOU-TEE-FUL. Check it out:



Now available exclusively in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Kitchen! And by "now" I mean November 4!

Skillman Window!

before:



during:

The floor is green!

The floor is in, and it's green!

more during

beginning of oct:



end of sept:

skillman window

before:



after:

Before and...durings

September:



So we filled a garage, and then a dumpster with all of this:



and then the garage was empty:




August:




July 7:

The DOB Diet

There have been times in my life when I have been more conscious of what I eat and what I weigh. There have rarely been times in my life when I found myself not paying attention, and yet losing weight. It may not be the most cost effective way to slim down, after paying the draftsman, the expeditor, the architect, and the DOB fees, or the most timely, as the whole process has taken just under one month. The trick of it is, each time you see that cold "disapproved" on the DOB site, your stomach turns and you can't eat for hours!


Date filed: 8/24/06
Date approved: 9/19/06
Pounds lost: 5

Lemon Cookies

Tried a new recipe this weekend, lemon sugar cookies from a recipe in the Best Light Recipe cookbook. Mmmmm...butter, sugar and lemon zest. and some flour, but it didn't seem like it was enough. The recipe is written for standard baking, but I experimented a bit with the convection settings, with good short-term results: The first batch, cooked at 355 convect for 12 minutes, were crispy and well-risen. The next batch, baked at 375 regular (as per recipe) turned out thinner and slicker after 10 minutes. The third batch, 375 convect for 9 minutes, weren't as crispy as Batch 1, but had a better rise - for the first 7 minutes. After that, they collasped (and yes - I was sitting on the floor in front of the stove, documenting). Flattened and limp.

But i had an aha moment when i recalled a note in another recipe i had been considering. The cookie sheet, common to all, was cool only for the first batch, the best batch. The warm sheet for the subsequent batches melted the butter before the oven heat could cook the cookies, resulting in flatter cookies. Or that's my theory, anyway.

But more importantly, the cookies tasted too...buttery. The local market didn't have cake flour, as called for in the recipe, so i winged it with all-purpose, possibly a cause for the lack of longevity of the rise (even Batch 1 became indistinguishable from the rest after cooling - flat, gooey and SOOO buttery, and not in a good way).

Needed but didn't have:
- a zester (not the box - still can't get zest out)
- more cookie sheets, use cool sheets!
- cake flour

Gave most of them away, if they sit around I would eat them, butter OD or not.

Juried Dinners

Fancy yourself quite the home cook? Step up to our challenge - bring a dish to a potluck dinner, and we shall discuss the highs and lows of your technique. Don't worry, you also get to dish on the fruits of others' labor. We hope to also invite professional chefs and -eek- food critics for a little extra fun.

Keep checking in, drop a line in the comments section if you are interested in subjecting yourself to the torture of scrutiny and a taste of what others care to share.