We are setting up a gifting option on the site for people who would like to order a yearly subscription to our website for their friends, family, coworkers, etc. We have ordered some reusable shopping bags as well, with the hopes that people who like our recipes will use it to go out and buy their ingredients. We thought that it would be a great idea to set up a gifting button, because a yearly subscription is something that is quite affordable and doesn't require an extra trip out to the mall. We will keep everyone posted about our gifting for the holidays!

This week we are raffling off a big box of Peruvian foods donated by Rojas International, a Connecticut-based company that imports ingredients from Peru. The box includes pepper pastes, whole grains, corns, spices, and a Panetone bread and hot chocolate to keep you warm for the holidays. We used their Mama Tina Aji Amarillo (Yellow Pepper Paste) for our Papas a la Huancayina, which gave it a sublime yellow color and slightly spicy taste. It is also one of the staples of traditional ceviche. I am jealous of whoever gets the quinoa. One of my nutrition teachers once said about the nutritious whole grain "If it was good enough for the Incas it is good enough for me". Very well put!
Send your raffle entries to peruvianraffle@kitchencaravan.com for a chance to win the box!!!

If anyone is making the Delicata Squash Mousse today, I realized that there was a mistake in the recipe. The remaining 2/3 cup of sugar is added to the beaten egg whites, once they start to form stiff peaks.

You can see the corrected recipe now on our recipe page under "Delicata Squash Mousse". I apologize for the mistake, and hope that you caught it!

Yesterday Emma and I went to Beltane Farm in Lebanon, CT to finish filming the second half of our episode “From Farm to Table”. We are tracing food from its source to the plate. Beltane produces a variety of goat’s milk cheeses, and on Sunday’s there are tastings for visitors to the farm. The tastings are held in a cozy little house where they also serve hot cider and showcase local wines and soaps. Emma and I spent some time with the owner, Paul Trubey, who introduced us to his beautiful goats, donkey, pony, dog, and cat. The farm felt like one of the happiest places on earth. All of the animals are so well taken care of, and full of love, which spreads to all visitors who step foot on the farm. I found that the goats loved to have their photos taken and would vie for the attention of the camera. My particular favorite was a white goat that was a total diva. She didn’t want anyone else in the frame! As for the cheese, their feta is my favorite. It is only slightly salty, and has a smoother consistency, beating the crumbly fetas that are commercially available. I have been eating away at it with my dad who also loves it. We had it over a salad with tuna and avocado the other day, and often enjoy it simply with crackers. I also took home some of the pecorino that they make. My mother made porcini mushroom papardelle last night, and the goat-y pecorino was just divine as an accompaniment. I would dare to say that a plain pasta with the pecorino would make for a great dinner.

Yesterday Emma and I took a trip down to East Lyme, CT with Chef Jason Collin and General Manager Dan Meiser of Firebox Restaurant in Hartford. We are working with them on our last episode of the fall season, which will be called “From Farm to Table”, in which we trace the food that they serve in the restaurant from its source to the plate. They took us down to Ashlawn Farm, where their beef purveyor keeps his cattle, and also where they get their roasted coffees. Although our episode will focus on the locally sourced beef that they serve (we can’t give too much away right now!), we learned a lot about coffee yesterday, and experienced for ourselves the beauty of getting it locally roasted.
Chip and Carol are the owners of the farm and have a coffee roasting machine where they roast raw beans that they import from all over the world. Chip gave us a tour of their farm, and explained to us many things about coffee that we did not know before. For starters, when coffee is freshly roasted you get a stronger aroma and richer flavor in the end product. Coffee beans have a shelf life, and buying them locally allows you to have a fresher product. He told us that once ground, coffee should be drunk within 48 hours. Keeping it in the fridge helps a bit with the shelf life, but it is better to grind up the beans only when you are ready to drink it. He also explained that the darker the roast, the less caffeinated the coffee is, because the roasting process strips the caffeine away. I always had the impression that a darker roast meant a stronger coffee. At the farm they have a small coffee house that has a large following. Who can resist freshly roasted coffee that is served overlooking fields with horses and cows? We were happy to have the owners of Ashlawn and are excited to try our locally roasted coffee blends.

Yesterday was leftovers-for-lunch day, and I wanted to make something that I have been thinking about for a while now. Squash poached in tea. I guess the inspiration came a few months back when I was reading the book "Curry", by Lizzie Collingham. The book travels through a few of the well-known dishes of India, describing the historical context in which they developed. One of the recipes I read described pumpkin poached in tamarind. That just sounded so fun to me, not only because of the contrast of sweet and tangy, but also because of the colors of dark maroon and orange. Anyway, it sparked a desire in me to poach Winter squash in various liquids, rather than roasting it, which has become a little boring for me.
Yesterday, I found some leftover cubed butternut squash from an asopao recipe my sister had made the day before. I simply brought about two inches of water to a boil, added a jasmine teabag and a lemon-ginger teabag, and then the cubed squash. I covered the pot and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. The result was great. The squash cooked quickly and easily, and its sweet flavor was further pronounced by being infused with the tea. We ate it with some Lebanese bread and yogurt, which was a great combination, and one that we will repeat. I thought that I would write about it, because I imagine there are a lot of people who stare at their squash, and then stare at the oven, and do not want to go through the hassle of roasting.
Next step is the pumpkin poached in tamarind!

Emma and I cooked Kale with Garlic at the Grand Army Greenmarket in Brooklyn yesterday. Even though it was very cold and windy, we had a lot of fun. We decided that we would kick off our Winter season with an episode about Kale, and so we were cooking one of our recipes to see how it would go over. We simply sautéed curly leafed kale with some olive oil, added some water, and then once the kale was cooked through, we mixed in a good amount of minced garlic. Last but not least, we seasoned it with some soy sauce. Our most surprising discovery was that every single child that tried it absolutely loved it. One boy came back three times for samples, while another girl rolled her eyes around in ecstasy when she smelled hers. Kale is such an amazing vegetable, providing us with so many vitamins and minerals throughout the winter season, that it is strange to think that it is not as popular as other veggies. Hopefully we will be able to change that slowly! Thanks to everyone who stopped by and tried our samples yesterday!

The other day I went to the Union Square Greenmarket here in New York, and was happy to discover Watermelon Radishes! I found them at a farm stand, and was happy to find that they had little samples out for me to try. "Watermelon Radish" is a fitting name for the vegetable, because they are very large, about the size of a softball, and have the same coloring of a watermelon. When sliced open, the outermost rim of the flesh is bright green and surrounds a watermelon pink flesh. I asked, and the woman said that they would be out all winter. Radishes are not my favorite vegetable, but they do make a great snack to put out right before mealtime, when everyone is hovering over pots and asking too many questions in the kitchen. But what makes these radishes great is their color. How many hot pink veggies or fruits do we have to save us from the beiges, oranges, and browns that make up our winter staples? Now we have one more. . . As for the snack, peel the radish, slice it into sticks (similar to carrots), and drizzle with some lemon juice.

The other day I went to meet my friend Leticia from my Food Writing class. She is a chocoholic chef with a lot of talent. She brought me little peanut butter truffles that were to die for. Inside the hard chocolate shell was a creamy, crunchy peanut butter filling, with just the right amount of salt to compliment the sweetness. Leticia will be cooking with me this December on an episode that we will do about food from Rio de Janeiro for Carnival. She gives cooking classes in Connecticut, so if you are in the area, make sure you check out her schedule!