Ever wondered how the things we take for granted actually came to be? Take the salad spinner, for example, or the word “brunch.” And who came up with peanut butter and jelly in the first place? The New York Times magazine answered a few of those questions in their Innovations Issue a few weeks back. (You may also be surprised to learn that low-carb dieting was a thing way back in 1825!)
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Hemp seeds are on my permanent grocery list these days. But when my mom came to visit from California a few weeks ago, she turned her nose up at them and couldn’t quite understand: Why not just eat granola in the morning instead? Why would you put those in your salad? The truth? They’re nutty and delicious and pack a serious nutritional punch. In short: I’ve fallen hard for them.
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Cucumber rolls with pesto shrimp, classic Salade Niçoise, and peach thyme cake in today’s Delicious Links.
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4.22 / 5 Stars | 7 Reviews
by Debe
“The parsley is what makes these potatoes green. This is my mother-in-law’s recipe. It is a very fast and easy way to make better-than-mashed potatoes!”
One of my favorite desserts on this planet (yes, we’re going for High Melodrama today, also, it’s that wonderful) is affogato, which translates from Italian as “drowned.” The lucky drowner is top-notch vanilla gelato, and it is draped in a single shot of freshly-pulled espresso. I see you arching your eyebrows and you are full of questions, aren’t you? Isn’t that horribly bitter? Doesn’t it melt the ice cream? How can it be your favorite dessert if it has neither butter nor chocolate with it? All are legitimate concerns but the thing is, when it’s done right — and there really is a magical balancing point between the volume of ice cream and the amount of espresso, that is, sadly, rarely achieved — the resulting mess is a semi-slumped mound of cold and sweet vanilla cream with a trench of faintly bitter latte around it. It is the ultimate grownup dessert — sure, you get the ice cream you’ve been angling for after dinner since you were 3.5, but you also get a bracing hit of espresso, just enough to keep you up past your bedtime, you know, when all the fun begins.
Of course, we’re not going to talk about affogato today because, well, now you already know how to make it now. Instead, we’re going to talk about the cups of granita di espresso con panna we fell head over heels for in Rome, which reminded me of an inversed affogato. Instead of unsweetened espresso coating sweetened creamy gelato, it’s the coffee that’s icy and sweet and the cream that’s plain and soft. The result is the same contrast of bitter versus sweet, soft versus icy that I love in affogato, but stacked in a cup that you can eat with a spoon as you wander the ancient cobblestoned center of Rome on blazing hot day when even the dapper businessman we passed along the Tiber was licking a gelato cone with the utter abandon of a kid. (Rome, you are wonderful.)
… Read the rest of espresso granita with whipped cream on smittenkitchen.com
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permalink to espresso granita with whipped cream | 99 comments to date | see more: Ice Cream/Sorbet, Italian, Photo, Summer, Travel
Last week the USDA, in an unprecedented move, approved a non-GMO label for meat and liquid egg products. The label, which is certified by the Non-GMO Project, will indicate whether the meat or eggs in question came from animals raised on feed without any genetically engineered ingredients like corn, soy and alfalfa.
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This week we’re sharing with you something we’ve picked up on our travels. It’s been a while since I’ve been able to take to the road but it didn’t take me long to decide that this set of three café au lait bowls would be my choice.
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Spaghetti with crab and tomatoes, a spicy radish salad, and mandarin chai iced tea in today’s Delicious Links.
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4.82 / 5 Stars | 999 Reviews
by Cacki
“Quick and easy turtle candies! Mini pretzels, caramel covered chocolate candies, and pecans make up this delicious treat.”
