Now before I get into a lengthier blog post tonight, I wanted to quickly post two awesome beer/brooklyn events I discovered via this morning’s Brooklyn Based.

Barrette in Proscpect Heights (couldn’t find their official page) is having a monthly installment of $25 beer and food pairings! Chef Johannes Sanzin (of Fort Greene’s Olea, Pequena and Maggie Brown) whips up three courses to enjoy alongside cold ones from the New Hampshire Pennichuck Brewery. Brooklyn Based says reservations are recommended; walk-ins welcome.

Next is Cobble Hill’s Bar Great Harry. (ps- where did all these great bars come from and how did I not know about them?). Tuesday, at 6pm, the bar surrenders half its 12 taps to Sixpoint! Meat and cheese at no extra charge! I just checked their blog and they have my fave beer of all times on tap. Which is totally strange because according to their website they don’t even ship to New York. A mystery!

Friends,

I know.  I have a lot of blogging catch-up to do.  The pictures from last dinner haven’t been posted (well there’s one—see the header) and my number of culinary adventures, disasters and mishaps is growing (while the hours of sleep are dwindling).  And wasn’t this the point of starting a blog in the first place—
to share words and wisdom of all things delicious?  I blame sausage stuffing,
a casserole cook-off, beer pairing, canning, a cooking-dating show and the family of mice living behind my stove.

However, gripped by the warm and fuzzy spirit of this past week’s political victories as well as the anticipation of upcoming family feasts, I am throwing together a not-so-secret-very-last-minute butter machine dinner!

Now, before you turn your pockets inside out—I need to inform you that this dinner is a little different.  And if all goes well, it may become the new butter machine dinner formula.

The Deal: This Friday, November 14th, 8pm. Four courses. Thirty bucks.  The catch?  You pick the beers.

Tonight I’ll be posting the menu as well as style of beer recommended for each course.  Then you can pick a dish and shoot me an e-mail (I can also answer any questions) on what you’re bringing.  Participation is fun!

Figure you’re quenching the thirst of 12 folks, each guest receiving 4-6 oz. of beer.  Which, if my math is correct, means you’d have to bring four or so beers.  We can all then swap and sip and trade and it will be very fun, I think.  You’re only limited to the type of beer posted, though you will get extra brownie points if it’s from one of Brooklyn’s own breweries (Kelso, Six Point and the Brooklyn Brewery).

So, before we all take off in pursuit of dried out turkey and fruitcake, I invite you to shake out the tablecloth one last time.  I have lots of thanks to give (to the friends I know and the ones I haven’t met yet) and a lot of food to share.

Oh yea, check the next page for the menu.

xo
lila

photo credit: Lily ‘don’t touch that dial’ Frances Henderson.

MENU
11.14.08

On the Table:

House Bread
Roasted Peanuts
____

Crostini
Salvatore Ricotta,
Kiawe White Hawaiian Honey, Sea Salt

recommended beer: hefeweizen
____

Root Vegetable Hash
Brooklyn Lager, Apple Chips, Parsnip Ribbons

recommended beer: amber lager or brown ale

____

Scallops
Pancetta, Cider Brown Butter, Granny Smiths

recommended beer: belgian blonde
____

Pumpkin Pots de Crème
Amaretti, Candied Ginger, Earl Grey Ice Cream

recommended beer: chocolate stout, strong ale or porter

I love fall food. I love summer, too.
There is, however, a downside to that immediate gratification. Summer produce can only really last for so long.  Tomatoes can’t be stored in the fridge and with the humidity (and requisite fruit flies) their shelf life is pretty short.  Come October the nights dip into the 50′s, I can start storing my produce outside. Splintery wooden wine boxes now line my back porch, brimming with late season tomatoes, peppers, kale, beets and apples.  Storing these guys outside will definitely extend their lives (which is really fine, considering that plants do spend most of their time outside.)  And even better suited to cold, dry days are the potatoes and squash to come!  Which means more freezer space for ice cream.

This post will go over the basics of:

-How to shop the fall NY farmer’s market
-How to store your goods
-How to use the leftovers: making jams, jellies and pickles!

Food Things To Do in October:

Murray’s Cheese: Let’s Rock & T’yrol: Oct. 15th

James Beard House: One if by Land, Two if by Sea: Craig Hopson: Oct. 15th

The New School: Food Writing Forum: Edible Manhattan: Oct. 16th

Emerging & Disappearing Immigrant Foodways @ NYU: Oct. 16th

Step up to the Plate: Ending the Food Crisis @ Cooper Union: Oct. 16th

Action Center to End World Hunger Opening Ceremony: Oct. 16th

Just Food: Start a CSA in 2009!: Oct. 17th

Words for Action by the Moth @ The Action Center to End World Hunger: Oct. 17th

Astor Center: He Said Beer, She Said Wine: The Face-off: Oct. 16th

Gourmet Institute: Oct. 17th-19th

Food & Culinary Professionals: Food Blogging: Oct. 17th

Artisanal Cheese: Great Goats: Alternative Cheeses: Oct. 17th

Brandy Library: Single Malt Saturday: Oct. 18th

Added-Value Harvest Festival: Oct. 18th

The 4th Annual Vendy Awards: Oct. 18th

Slowfood: Fall Dinner with Bill Telepan: Oct. 19th

Sunday, October 19, noon
AppLES: Apples on Orchard
Orchard Street between Broome and Grand
Back before boutiques, tenements, and its claim to fame as the pickle district, Orchard St. was the apple orchard on Delancey Farm. This Sunday enjoy a bite of New York history and celebrate our city’s namesake fruit with vendors, neighbors, and of course plenty of New York apples.

Rural Route Film Festival at Anthology Film Archives: October 19th

James Beard House: Modern Singapore Flavors with Chris Yeo: Oct. 20th

Food Bank NYC: New York City Goes Orange: Oct. 20th

Culinary Historians of New York: Bee Wilson: Swindled: The History of Food & Fraud: Oct. 20th

New York Wine & Culinary Center: The Pink Chef: Breast Cancer Awareness: Oct. 20th

City Harvest: Bid Against Hunger: Oct. 21st

Artisanal Cheese: Craft Beer & Artisanal Cheese: Oct. 23rd

Astor Center: Port & Chocolate: Oct. 23rd

James Beard House: Flavors of Florence: Oct. 25th

Institute of Culinary Education: Spanish Surf & Turf: Oct. 25th

De Gustibus: Amy Scherber & Toy Kim Dupree: Amy’s Bread: Oct. 27th

Feast with Famous Famous: League for the Hard of Hearing: Oct. 27th

Murray’s Cheese: British Invasion: Real Ales, Real Cheese: Oct. 27th

92nd Street Y: Wine: The Art of Buying & Tasting: Oct. 29th

James Beard House: Gastropub Supper with Jamie Leeds: Oct. 30th

Institute of Culinary Education: Artisanal Beer & Cheese: Oct. 30th

Brewtopia: Oct. 31st-Nov. 2nd

Artisanal Cheese: Scary Cheese: Oct. 31st

sage crackers
balsamic glazed sweet & sour cippoline

two crostinis:
prosciutto. apple marmellata. smoked black pepper oil.
fig jam. ricotta. honey.

________________________

red casunziei
beet ravioli. poppyseed butter. fennel seed.

________________________

autumn salad
root vegetables. goat cheese croutons. sage oil.

________________________

brussels sprout hash
caramelized shallots. black truffle oil.

________________________

tirasmisu affogado
coffee & vanilla ice creams.
crushed savoiardi. espresso. schlag.

Beer:
Hecht Ochlenferla Rauchbîer / Kulmbacher Edelherb Premium Pils

The rumors are true. Thirsty Thursdays are back! Except they’re not on Thursdays anymore. I have a new job. This job keeps me slingin’ kinves and fancy stockpots ’till pretty late so I had to move it to Fearless Friday. The formula is more or less the same, 4-ish courses carefully paired with 4-ish craft beers, all to be enjoyed in the comforts of my home in Williamsburg.  Not to be confined by the Christian calendar, I have given the dinners a more neutral name. They will be named for the blog they are featured on: The Butter Machine.

Which conveniently brings me to my next point. The Butter Machine is redefining itself. Or rather, clarifying itself. I had two separate blogs, one for talking out loud and the other for my supper club. I had a ‘duh’ moment when my housemate pointed out that most of what I like to write/talk about was food related anyway, so why not make a webby home for both? K. Done.

I graduated with a degree of sorts (in that it was a real diploma but was also round. Hampshire College is like that.) in Literary Journalism and Documentary Studies. So while I mostly wrote (don’t judge me by my punctuation use, plz. ) I also took some pictures, produced a few audio pieces and bound a book or two. Hopefully, The Butter Machine will be multi-faceted in that way as well as cover a variety of story types. I mean, cook-offs are great and all (especially the ones coming up. Watch out Hipsterville!) but there are other, more worldly issues to write about as well.

That’s it. Comment away and stop by for dinner, maybe.

Oh and my next dinner is October 24th. Which was why I was writing this post in the first place.  E-mail me to reserve a spot.

Cheers,
Lila

I’m always down for a little friendly competition and since I’m not doing much else with my spare time (besides making endless batches of tomato jam) I was super stoked to see them feature all of the current cooking contests in Brooklyn (which all happen to be within 2 miles of my house.) See, I’ve been waiting to avenge my loss at last year’s casserole cook-off at Brooklyn Label. I made my mama’s kugel which I was sure would knock the pants off these hamburger helper reduxes labeled, “from cheese, with love.” Alas, the judge’s hearts went soft for the meat in a box in a pyrex. I had already vowed to partake in every contest this fall but after taking a look through BB’s post and discovering that I was actually in their casserole press photograph, I knew this meant war.

The Cook-Off newsletter is below, with my likeness marked:

How to Win a Brooklyn Cook-Off


The arrival of fall marks a return to home cooking, and the season of amateur cooking competitions. Not Eating Out in New York blogger Cathy Erway, a pedigreed loser, winner, host and judge of many a Brooklyn cook-off (and a baker at our first annual pig roast), spills some tips on how to outdo your neighbor at the next one.

Feed the Masses
Cook more than plenty. You may end up taking home leftovers, but if you run out of your grub you may seem stingy, and no crowd likes the idea of exclusivity at what they think is a free-for-all.

Know Your Judges
If you’ve got a red-blooded, meat-headed bully of a judge on the panel, you might be wise to forget the mushroom cap beignets and try your best to trick him/her into thinking your seitan is pulled pork. If it’s an audience-judged event, or if you have no idea who the judges are, know that some ingredients are just polarizing. Beets, eggplant, Brussels sprouts and dill are all love-it-or-hate-it foodstuffs, and therefore should be avoided.

Show a Little Showmanship
It’s not a mail-in recipe contest, so why not take advantage of the in-person arena? No rules prohibit costumed entries, and a little live garnish action can go a long way. My friend Phil entered the Great Hot Dog Cookoff this past summer bearing this five-foot-tall, hand-painted sign. (Sadly, he didn’t win, but I chalk this up to his breaking Rule #1: not making enough.)

Play the Name Game
A good way of fooling people into thinking you made a really clever, creative dish is to give it a really clever, creative name. Especially if you’re in Williamsburg, where people generally don’t eat too much of the food, but rather walk around making snide comments on how it all looks. “Three-Cheese Lasagna” won’t melt any hearts, but “My Lasagna, It Has Three Cheeses” might. Think of timely, or setting-appropriate names like “There Will Be Chili,” a cook-off contender last winter.

Be Community Oriented
You’re cooking for neighbors, with neighbors, so go to your favorite Greenmarket stand, a friend of a friend’s specialty store, or local meat supplier, and then make it a not-so-secret ingredient. You’ll win more brownie points that way than if you buy all your ingredients from FreshDirect.

Bear in Mind Mouthfeel
People are pretty predictable in terms of what they want out of texture; they usually prefer super-thick stews and sauces, super-flaky pastries, and super-crusty on the outside, moist on the inside casseroles. Yet I can’t tell you how many contestants seem to forget that texture is almost always a factor in judging any food. Wateriness will kill even the most delicious dish.

Go All the Way
There is nothing sadder than bringing something boring to a cook-off. Unless you’re going for an award like “Most Classic,” give your entry a twist or a sweet/savory somersault. The worst that can happen is that it’ll taste disgusting (e.g. my “Potato Chips Au Gratin” at the Brooklyn Kitchen’s Bodega Challenge). But at least you’ll be a loser and not a lame-ass (oh, the distinction!).

Upcoming Cook-Offs
Oct 16: Enid’s Apple Pie Bake Off. site>>
Oct 26: Barcade’s BRUCE Chili Cookoff. site>>
Nov 10: Emily Farris’s Casserole Party at Brooklyn Label (her cookbook comes out today!). site>>
Early-mid November: Fondue Takedown at Union Pool. site>>

menu
august 7

semolina bread
olive oil
5 spoke tumbleweed*

crostini with brown buttered corn,
lemon-thyme and basil oil
beverage: brooklyn local 1

_____________________

roasted beet salad with arugula, red onion and buttermilk horseradish dressing
beverage: leelanau whaleback white

_____________________

zucchini timbale with red pepper coulis and avocado puree over wilted beet greens
beverage: weisen edel-weisse

_____________________

grilled peach halves with salvatore ricotta,
honey and sel gris
beverage: tsmisje dubbel

*cave-aged cantal-style cheddar, PA

menu
july 23, 2008

phyllo cups with ricotta, thyme-honey and sea salt
beverage: thiriez blonde

__________________

black bean puree with creamed coconut, cilantro and lime
beverage: de ranke xx bitter

__________________

seared bay scallops with citrus beurre blanc
over israeli cous-cous with toasted cumin
beverage: brooklyn brewery local 1

__________________

grilled raclette-stuffed mission figs and strawberries with rosemary balsamic reduction
beverage: avery hog heaven barley wine