spreading some blog love

Thank you, Jen of Tiny Urban Kitchen, for awarding Candice Cooks the "One Lovely Blog" Award. This is the first blog award I have ever received! Thank you for your kind words and the recognition!

This is what Jen wrote: "Candice from Candice Cooks is a Boston local, just like me! I love reading her impressions of the local Boston food scene, especially all her photos of the farmers markets that she visits. Her posts are funny, warm, and personal. I love the little stories that she interweaves into her food posts."

In the spirit of spreading the blog love, I've listed a couple of blogs I enjoy reading. Here are the rules for the "One Lovely Blog" award:

• Link to the person from whom you’ve received the award.


• Nominate blogs you really like, preferably ones you have recently discovered


• Leave a message on the nominees’ blogs telling them of their award!

So are you ready for them? Here are some food-related blogs I look forward to reading on a regular basis:

Extracurricular Laboratory Notebook
One of the reasons I like to read Stephanie's blog is because she signed up for a CSA and I love to see what she creates from the fresh produce she receives each week. I like how she isn't afraid to try new recipes and experiment with ingredients.

Tiny Urban Kitchen
I stumbled upon Jen's blog after discovering one of her posts on Foodbuzz a little while ago. Then I secretly started stalking her on Twitter once I learned that she's in the Boston area too. She creates some of the coolest dishes (with such a creative twist) and her excellent photography skills make me drool on the keyboard. I also really appreciate her attention to detail when it comes to describing food, ingredients, and dishes.

In the Hands of a Chef
This is Chef Jody Adams' blog. She is a James Beard award-winning chef/owner who celebrates regional Italian cuisine interpreted with New England ingredients at her landmark restaurant in Harvard Square, Rialto. I am enjoying her blog these days because she and a few of her staff are on an awesome trip through Europe discovering different cuisines and regions. I've eaten at Rialto and it's such a wonderful restaurant so it makes reading about her travels that much more intriguing to me.

Anna the Red's Bento Factory
I came across this blog recently after someone posted a link to her "Where the Wild Things Are" food creation. I can't believe how detailed and precise her creations are - talk about having a lot of patience! I love how she breaks down the process of how she forms different things. It makes you look at food in a different way.

Enjoy perusing these blogs as much as I do! Thanks again for the award, Jen! :)

Foodbuzz 24, 24, 24: Drink Times Ten

My husband, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, and I checked out Drink earlier this month and had such a great time (see earlier post about where we ate afterwards here). I wanted to share the experience of Drink with some of my friends. Nine friends actually.

As a member of the Foodbuzz blogging community, I had the opportunity to propose an idea for the July edition of Foodbuzz’s 24, 24, 24 project. And luckily, my proposal got picked. Thus Drink Times Ten came to fruition on a Saturday night.

We were greeted by the manager, John, with a complimentary food and cocktail pairing which consisted of a drink called the ‘Bamboo’ and a garnish of three house-pickled almonds. It’s made with Amontillado sherry, dry vermouth, and some orange bitters. We learned that they do a lot of their own pickling at Drink including lychee in tequila and cherries in liqueur.

It was quite a strong drink upon first sip and I think about half the group liked it more than the other half. The funny thing is that all of our glasses were somehow empty, so as one of my friends, JW, said, “After the fifth sip, it grew on me.”

Our bartenders that night were Sam and Cali - two very sweet, patient, and accommodating people. Although some people might get the impression that it is a pretentious place because of it’s dim mood-lighting and sveltely dressed staff, most of my friends thought it was rather laid back and low key. As one of them commented, “You know, I don’t usually feel comfortable ordering liquor drinks at a bar because I don’t know what to order. But here, it’s nice because you can actually have a conversation with the bartender and they don’t talk down to you.” I was tickled when the bartenders got excited describing the ingredients of a cocktail, and things like the origin or history of a liqueur.

So the premise of the evening’s event was that each person in our group would order an item from their bar menu, and then the bartender would suggest a drink to go along with the dish based on each person’s tastes. With eleven items currently being offered on the food menu, there are countless possibilities of drink and food pairings. In total, we had seven of the different dishes and had approximately nineteen different drinks (a couple were non-alcoholic) in the course of roughly three hours. Now that is my idea of a fun night with friends!

Speaking of friends, listed below are the participants of my 24, 24, 24 project, all ever-so-willing to give up a couple of hours in the name of liqueur research. Next to their names are the dish they ordered and the drinks that were made for them. Click on each name to see a full description of what they had that night (with pictures!) along with some of their feedback. Be sure to click on each photo to see the details.

I asked them to answer a few food-related questions before the event to give readers an idea of each person's food tastes. See if you share some of the same likes or dislikes - it may help you decide what to order when you visit Drink! Be warned: looking at these photos will probably make you hungry.

Tony: pork terrine with a Vieux Carre cocktail; Sazerac cocktail

JW: grilled cheese with a Maximillian Affair cocktail; Tennessee cocktail

Laura: prosciutto di Parma with a 20th Century cocktail; Left Bank cocktail

Stephanie: pork terrine with a Blood and Sand cocktail; Agony and Ecstasy cocktail

Friend #5: prosciutto di Parma with a Whiskey Smash cocktail; Lawhill cocktail; Rye Flip cocktail

Renee: buttermilk biscuits with a Bone cocktail; Aviator cocktail

Allen: chorizo appetizer with a Champs Elysee cocktail; gougeres with a Cucumber non-alcoholic; Mock non-alcoholic

Patty: grilled cheese with a Blueberry Mojito

Jess: prosciutto di Parma with an Aviation cocktail; nameless cocktail

Candice (that’s me): steak tartare with a Greenpoint cocktail; gougeres with rose wine

Overall, most of the group thought that the pairings went well with each other. There were gaps in between the time when one would order a drink before the appetizer would arrive, but that gave time to savor the cocktail in the meantime. We sat on one side of the bar but it wasn’t too long before it filled up completely (it was a Saturday night after all).

Thank you to Foodbuzz for approving my 24, 24, 24 project proposal and giving me and nine friends the opportunity to experience the creativity and passion for tasty libations offered by Drink. Thanks to Sarah at the Barbara Lynch Group for approving our reservation at Drink on a Saturday night. Thanks to John, Sam, Cali, and Aaron for an educating, exciting, and fun experience. And a special thank you to my nine friends for joining me in my food adventures, taking diligent notes throughout the evening (I made them work for their food and drinks!), and for providing such great company.

And now, I’ll return to daydreaming about eating gougeres all day long. P.S. They are so worth the wait!

One of our bartenders, Cali, pouring a drink.

A close up of the chorizo dish.

One of our bartenders, Sam, with a completed cocktail.

Two kids in the window passing by. They were just jealous of all the good stuff we were enjoying.