De Baking Psychopath

We attended the 4th annual Farm to Table Conference Friday Night Food Tasting event this weekend. Set against the pretty backdrop of the city skyline, it was a festive and delicious sampling of local (mostly PA) wineries, specialty stores, farms, and personal chefs/caterers. Here's a photojournal of some of the things we tasted and saw: Little communion-sized cups for the wine sampling. I found that I tolerated and liked the dessert wines much better than regular wines, of which I have a hard time finishing even a small glass because they're too strong for me. I drank much more wine in one go than I have in years at this event. I bought a bottle of "Sweet Sensation" ( A sweet sparkling red wine. Jammy aromas with hints of dark berries entice you to taste its velvety full body and mouthwatering finish. Best served chilled.) from the Thistlethwaite Vineyards. Bonus: I must have been wearing adult-looking clothing because I did not get carded once, while a friend ...

(Image from http://www.photoxels.com/tag/canon-sx20/) So it's still pretty freakin' big, but Michael's assured me he will carry and protect the camera when we go out traveling. For home purposes it doesn't matter too much. Ain't it a beauty though? And less than half the price of entry level DSLRs. It's gonna come in the mail in a few days, and then we'll do a full-out image comparison with the old Sony....

You know you're obsessed with baking/food when you wake up in the morning and spend a couple hours looking at blogs and other topics online before going to work...and then go into work and blab about such topics to everyone you think may be interested...and then come home and wake up at 7:30 AM on a Saturday to start blogging about such topics... So now it's your turn to be blabbed to: THESE ARE THE MOST AWESOME THINGS EVER! (for now) On No-Knead Bread Mix up a really sticky wet bread dough in 5 minutes, let sit on the countertop overnight (12-18 hours) or at least 1-4 days in the fridge to let the yeast rise slowly and the gluten soak up all that extra water, and when you're ready to bake, flip the dough around a bit into a ball, let it proof for half an hour, and then bake! And you're supposed to get this wonderful crisp/chewy-crusted, soft, Euro-bakery style artisan bread (if you bake it in a loaf in a heavy pan like a dutch oven). But you can adapt it to any type...