More gifts!

We still have some bundles of Splendid Market post-it notes to give away!   We will pop them in the post to the first 25 addresses we receive at ebh@splendidmarket.com (I recommend you cut and paste the address into your email server).    Your headquarter details will not be used for any other purposes.

Here is the list of subscribers who won the other gifts:

Craig French,
Laura Donald and
Shannon Ables (creator of the fabulous blog Simply Luxurious)

won the Antica Farmacista Pico Verde hand wash and moisturizer, a Splendid Market shopping tote and a bundle of Splendid Market post-its.

The winners of the Splendid Market tote and bundle of post-its were:

Diahann Brasseth,
Kim Seely and
Kelly Sygitowicz

Congratulations to all!   Thank you again for making this a Splendid year!!

Seductive Spatulas

If there were a Sport Illustrated magazine for kitchen utensils, these spatulas would be on the cover of the “swimsuit issue”.

Yes, they're spatulas, but as far as spatulas go, these are kind of, well, sexy.

Once this set of spatulas arrived via Amazon, nothing else would do in the Splendid kitchen.  I immediately developed an affinity to the sturdy, shapely stainless steel handles, hollow and so well weighted.  They allow one to stir, scoop, smooth and scrape with alluring ease. The "bittersweet chocolate" color is easy on the eye, bright colored foods look nice against it, and brownish colored foods blend in.

This collection is a part of the Tom Douglas cooking line.  The set includes 4 different sizes – large, medium, spoonsize and scraper...satisfying all culinary prep needs.

Beyond any doubt, they have won the vote for the spatula supermodel of the year.

Can’t you just see them, all glistening with droplets of olive oil or vino upon them,

striking a pose in a brown sugar beach??

Find them in the Splendid Items section or directly from Amazon.com.

Ting-a-Lings

Ting a Ling -- your mouth will sing!

Ever since we posted the recipe for our favorite Halloween confection, Chocolate Covered Tarantulas, I have been hearing from readers about a similar treat they enjoyed from their mother's kitchens.

The common thread to their stories has been that they were a traditional Christmas "cookie" their mom would make, containing chow mein noodles, and coated with a blend of melted chocolate chips and butterscotch chips.  Most were also made with mixed salted and roasted nuts (Planter's).  Chopped marshmallows and shredded coconut were often common ingredients.  Many have continued to make these as gifts at Christmastime, one packs them into Chinese take-out boxes.

When called upon to bring a take-away snack to an event recently, I thought some version of this confection, in honor of the Chinese New Year, seemed like the obvious thing to do. When they were finished (assembled in less than a half an hour, thank you!!) I packed them into Chinese take-out containers.

***

On a side note -- to read a great piece on the significance of the Year of the Tiger, click on GOOP, and dig into Gwyeneth Paltrow's introspective blog.

***

At the event, when people tried them, I heard the same flow of stories. They brought back memories for most everyone. Then, a friend told me her family used to call them "Ting-a-Lings" -- I loved the name.

As soon as possible I googled "Ting-a-Lings" and sure enough, trillons of recipes popped up. Some as simple as just the noodles coated in melted butterscotch and chocolate chips, and then everything beyond.

The basic formula we use for "Ting-a-Lings" is 9 ounces (about 1-1/2 cups) of chocolate chips, melted, and poured over 4-1/2 cups of crunchy, salty "stuff".  As with many of our recipes, we like to hit as many points on the taste palate as possible, in this recipe we cover sweet, salty, tangy, and (the recently identified sense of taste we experience) umami (or savory/ earthy).

So, plenty of flavor, a mouthful of texture and assembled in 1/2 hour --  Ting-a-Lings are a winner!  After they are assembled, allow about a 1/2 hour for the chocolate to solidify.

Following, you'll find recipes for our versions of these beloved treats, but feel free to play around with the formula and use your own favorite ingredients. Click on Chocolate Covered Tarantulas recipe, to enjoy the recipe in which we include tart, dried Montmorency Cherries and chopped up Milky Way bars. 

While the Ting-a-Lings made with butterscotch chips were tasty, and they definitely sent everyone on a joyful trip down memory lane, the food purist in me has a hard time including something that is (gulp!) "Artificially Flavored".  We have the recipe with the butterscotch chips listed below as "Traditional".

You'll also find our version of this recipe, labeled "Splendid", made with chopped butter caramels and pure, premium chocolate.  Both recipes contain crunchy, salted roasted whole almonds and tender dried apricots.

Ting a Lings, Traditional
Ingredients
5 ounces chocolate chips, melted (Nestle's, or one of the chocolates listed below)
4 ounces butterscotch chips, melted (the chips can be melted together)
2 cups chow mein noodles
1-1/4 cup salted roasted almonds (we used we used Blue Diamond brand)
1-1/4 cup chopped dried apricots

Ting a Lings, Splendid
Ingredients

9 ounces premium chocolate, melted (we like a semi-sweet, but milk is nice too!)  More on brands below.
2 cups chow mein noodles
1 cup salted, roasted almonds (we used Blue Diamond brand)
3/4 cup chopped butter caramels
3/4 cup chopped dried apricots

Prepare and measure dry ingredients and put them in a large, flat container with room for mixing. Stir ingredients together.

Here's how to "temper" (or melt) chocolate on the stove:

While the ting-a-lings people enjoyed growing up were made with Nestle's chips, we now have many more options when it comes to chocolate.   We love Guittard chocolate from San Francisco, they have wafers which melt beautifully and are available in the baking section of many grocery stores.

We also LOVE the Belgium chocolate Callebaut for it's smooth, rich flavor.   Callebaut can be found in large bars in some cooking stores, or in bulk at Whole Foods and other better grocery stores.  Also, I am not sure, but I suspect, the large bars of Belgium chocolate at Trader Joe's are made of Callebaut -- either way, the bars from TJ's would be a wonderful choice as well.

It is very important that water or steam does not come in contact with the melting chocolate. Water will cause the chocolate to seize. If this happens, sadly, you just have to kiss it goodbye and start over. There is no road to recovery!! Do not worry, follow these easy steps, splendid ones, and this shall not happen to you!

Fill the bottom vessel of a bain marie (or double boiler) with water to a level where it won’t spill out when you put the top vessel in place. Bring the water to a boil and then reduce it to a low simmer.  If not using chips or wafers, break the chocolate up into small pieces (or use a knife to create shavings if using a chunk of chocolate) and place it in the top vessel of the bain marie. Place the top vessel onto the lower vessel.

Do not put the lid on the pan – this may lead to condensation dripping into the chocolate and the dreaded seize!!

Watch the chocolate closely and stir it regularly until it is smooth and glossy.  If water begins bubbling up between the 2 vessels reduce the heat a little.
Chocolate can also be melted in the microwave, it's hard to give directions since every microwave is different.   Here's some general guidelines:  Pour the chocolate in a microwave proof container.  Turn on the oven, probably for about 20 seconds on high.  After 20 seconds, stir the chocolate (because microwaves begin cooking the inside of the food first, the chocolate will look solid, even when the center is beginning to melt).  Continue cooking and stirring at set intervals.   Take it slowly, if it goes too long the chocolate will scorch.

Pour the luscious melted chocolate over the dry mixture.

Use a spatula to toss the mixture until it is thoroughly coated in the melted chocolate.

Use all 5 fingers to take large pinches of the chocolate covered mixture and place the “pinch” on silpats or waxed paper,  shape the "pinch" into somewhat of a ball.

Allow the chocolate to solidify, this can take up to a half-hour at room temperature (faster if it is on a cold surface).  To speed up the process put the trays in the refrigerator or outdoors.

Ting-a-ling - a symphony for the mouth!

Signs of Spring

Oh, how we love seeing the late winter blossoms,

In the (relatively warm and cozy) courtyard the crocus are in full bloom,

With Ms. Muscari preparing to dominate and shine...

We've planted hundreds of crocus bulbs in the lawn, but because of the trees which shade this area, the botanical version of the "amuse bouche" will come later out here. The purple flowers come first, followed by the white, and the yellow blossoms finish the program. Here's the first show of purple.

We loved seeing Forsythia during a recent walk in the rain,

and also enjoyed its sunny presence..

with the Delphiniums,

and lillies,

indoors.

Enjoy the changing of the seasons!

Veraci pizza and the Western Bridge art opening

Fire and Ice

What a nice, warm welcome we experienced on a cold winters eve.   As we approached the art opening at Seattles' Western Bridge, we saw blazing fires.   Around an ornate fire pit, a crowd warmed their hands.

The next blaze was a splendid sight that truly kindled our appetites, it was the flame from one of our favorite movable feasts, the travelling Veraci pizza oven!  Using top quality ingredients and time-honored traditional methods, this truck parks outside the party and serves up wood-fired authentic Neapolitan pizza pies to ones hearts' desire!

Here are some shots from a previous daytime event, so you can see this beautifully crafted kitchen-on-wheels.   Made of handsome wood and topped with a clay dome, it is a vision, but what comes out of that oven is the true delight! 

Note the seasoned logs of apple wood -- these fuel a fire that creates "a puffed up slightly charred, crisp and chewy outer crust (the "cornicione") and delicous uber-thin melt-in-your-mouth softer inner crust".

Oh, yes, these pies are truly delicioso!

Freshly prepared pizza's are slipped onto this clay caved deck where temperatures are 1200 degrees-plus! The thin crust pizzas cook in about 90 seconds.

 

Knowing a savory snack was in the works, we were ready to enjoy some art!

The Western Bridge is a nonprofit space dedicated to contemporary art, founded by Seattle collectors Bill and Ruth True. Works from the collection have been exhibited in many major museums in North America and Europe. Western Bridge originated from a desire to keep more of the collection on view here in Seattle.
The collection, and travelling displays are housed in a 10,000 square foot renovated warehouse an the industrial district of Seattle.

The dominating (to say the least) piece of this exhibit by LA-based Euan Macdonald was "A Little Ramble".

Mr. MacDonald brought winter inside on a very grand scale!  Rambling (or wandering?) upon this massive mountaintop, were a pair forlorn looking taxidermized mountain goats.

"The work takes its title from a short prose piece by Robert Walser (1878-1956) recounting a trek in the mountains, most likely in Switzerland but unspecified, easily projected onto the landscape around Seattle. "I walked through the mountains today," the account begins. "The weather was damp, and the entire region was gray." The narrator limits himself to the observable, giving little indication of his interior state. The ending asserts the power of the mundane: "We don't need to see anything out of the ordinary. We already see so much."

A mountain encountered inside a gallery is clearly out of the ordinary, but the piece asserts itself as a commonplace despite its uncanniness. The extraordinary is expressed as if ordinary. "  -The Western Bridge

This romantic piece called "Ember" is a reference to the Olympic tradition of passing a flame between torches. 

Did I mention the signature cocktail?   Basically, slushies, laced with vodka.   Oooh, Blue Raspberry, my favorite (why is it blue though?   Raspberry is such a pretty color).

All in all, it was a splendid evening of fire,

and ice.....here's to all of the Olympic Athletes!

Click on the name to learn more about The Western Bridge and artist Euan Macdonald .

Veraci Pizza has travelling kitchens throughout the Northwest click on pizza to learn if they are near you.   Also, they will soon start selling clay pizza ovens for home use!