Ham Sandwich Indicted!

Drinking vinegars, or shrubs, are all the rage these days. Shrubs are fruit infused vingegars sweetened with sugar, and they are delicious mixed with some soda water or any given liquor. Shrubs have been around on the fancy-cocktail circuit for a while (I had a shrub cocktail at Nopa in San Franciso in 2009, and they're making a splash at Andy Ricker's Thai street food mecca  Pok Pok in Portland, Oregon.  His "Pok Pok Som Drinking Vinegars" are so popular that he's producing them for sale outside of his restaurant, and they're now available at Weiland's in Clintonville.  On the local blog scene, last week the lovely Rachel Tayse chronicled her creation of a rhubarb shrub on her blog Hounds in the Kitchen .  You should check it out. Over at the Ham Sandwich HQ, I had a dozen pounds of strawberries, courtesy of a seriously focused hour of picking at Schacht Family Farms last Saturday.   My freezer is not big enough for twelve pounds of frozen str

Want to learn a valuable life skill to survive when the zombies finally come?  Join me for a series of canning classes at Oakland Nursery this summer...I'll be teaching how to make jam in June, pickles in July, and salsa and tomato sauce in August.  Classes are $25 each, or all three for $65...it's a bargain! Plus, I'll be sharing some other tips on preserving your summer fruits and veggies. All the info can be found HERE .  I can promise delicious treats, a quality educational experience, and prize giveaways courtesy of everyone's favorite garden center: Oakland Nursery!  See you there!   

On a quest to find an easy, fast dessert to bring to a friend's house for dinner last week, the internet gods heard my plea and sent a newsletter from King Arthur Flour into my inbox.  Contained therein was the exact recipe I wanted: rich, chocolaty cookies with whopping total of six ingredients.  Consisting solely of egg whites, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt, they were like macrons that decided to take a few weeks off from fancy-land to kick back in a hammock, drink painkillers, and not bother with makeup. They've got a crispy exterior that gives way to a melty-soft middle--similar to real macrons, but without the airiness, since the egg whites are not whipped first. The original recipe is here ; below I've listed my modifications.  I made them smaller than suggested, as they are pretty rich, and a few of them go along way to taming any chocolate/sweet tooth you may have.   I think sandwiching two of them together with some ganache or jam or