Food Lush

A Hard Goodbye

By Jennie

Food Lush was created over two years ago, as a spin-off to Style Lush. We thought food deserved its own space and we sure filled this space with some delicious dishes, didn't we? What I have always loved most about Food Lush is that the food feels real. It's not too fancy, and it's made up of recipes, snacks, products, etc., that an actual person can incorporate into their life and kitchen. 

We launched in October of 2010 and I wondered how turning one site into two would go, but Food Lush is the little website that could. It's grown and grown and made me so proud. It far surpassed my expectations and while it's part of a family, it has its own success story.

Turns out people really like food. My kind of people, that is.

See, without you reading, there would be no reason for this site to have kept on going. So, I can't possibly thank you enough for visiting, for pinning, for making our dishes and reporting back to us how they turned out. Every time someone mentioned they found a recipe on Food Lush, I would smile. I really would. It made me beside myself with happiness and gratitude.

It's with that gratitude that I must share the sad news that Food Lush is closing its metaphorical doors for the indefinite future. Our last day of new posts will be February 1st (next Friday) and while our archives will live for the foreseeable future (please visit and search often; it will bring us a lot of comfort to know we might continue to serve your kitchens in some small way), our days of bringing you new (and delicious) posts are ending.

Unfortunately, managing both sites has become something I can no longer do. It's hard when your desire doesn't match your resources, when the ideas flow freely but the time falls short. My offline life has been calling me to give it more attention, and it's a good life. It deserves to be heard.

I've been part of the blogging community for almost six years and the gifts it has given me are countless and deep and beautiful. Nothing more so than this site (and Style Lush), and the sites' writers and readers. Thank you for reading, commenting, and supporting us over the years. It feels so small, so tiny, in comparison to how I feel, but thank you all the same. Thank you.

I ask that you continue to support the writers, as they start new online adventures. They are gifted and talented and funny and worthy of getting to know better, if you don't know them already. You can find them here: Jess, Nora, Katie, Elissa, Jen, Slynnro, Elsha, Julie, Ariel, Dani, Caitlin, Tara, Tara, Erica, Maura, Jess, and Sarah Anne.

Again, there will be new posts next week (and a few of those posts will be a fun look back at the past two years) so please stop in during our last full week.

After that, please accept our most heartfelt and grateful goodbye.

(If you know me aside from the Lush sites, I have written another goodye on my personal blog.)

The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook + Giveaway

Updated: The giveaway is now closed, and we have a winner! Congratulations to Stephanie M. (#7). I'll be in touch this week to get your mailing address to send your cookbook to. Happy cooking!

***

Editor's note: Tara received a free copy of The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook with no obigation to review and her thoughts are all her own. 

By Tara C.

The holidays may be over, but fans of Downton Abbey still have a reason to celebrate--the U.S. premiere of Season 3. And what could make your viewing experience even more pleasurable? How about some tasty, Downton Abbey-inspired treats?

When I was offered a review copy of The Downton Abbey Cookbook: From Lady Mary's Crab Canapés to Mrs. Patmore's Christmas Pudding--More Than 150 Recipes From Upstairs and Downstairs by Emily Ansara Baines after reviewing The Unofficial Harry Potter Cookbook, I jumped on the opportunity.

I recruited several Downton Abbey/cooking enthusiasts to help me try some recipes, including our own Food Lush writer, Erica. Never one to shy away from a theme, Erica arrived in a sparkly tiarra. I'm not pictured here, but let's imagine that I was dressed as a scullery maid.

Here are the recipes we tried:

• Lady Mary's Crab Canapés
• Crunchy Fig and Bleu Cheese Tarts
• Mrs. Isobel Crawley's Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches
• Sweet Cream Scones
• Classic Cornish Pasty
• Pork Pie Balls

 

Lady Mary's Crab Canapés

Crunchy Fig and Bleu Cheese Tarts (above) and Mrs. Isobel Crawley's Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwiches (below)

Perhaps not surprisingly, the cookbook contains more "upstairs" recipes than "downstairs" recipes, and, in my opinion, they're generally more appealing. An upper-class family at this time would have had access to a wider variety of foods than their working-class counterparts. Only two of the recipes we tried, the Classic Cornish Pasties and the Pork Pie Balls, were from the "Sustenance For The Staff" section. The recipes were pretty conceptually similar, as both involved meat wrapped in pastry dough. My friend Gina made the Classic Cornish Pasties and I made the Pork Pie Balls. While we made the dishes separately, we realized later than neither of us had used lard in the pastry as written in the recipe. We substituted Crisco. Other than that, we followed the recipes pretty closely. I think when you've spent much of your life avoiding lard, it's hard to consciously include it.

Classic Cornish Pasty

I somehow neglected to take a picture of the Pork Ball Balls, but they were not very photogenic anyway. Picture enormous meatballs wrapped in pie crust and you get the idea. 

Throughout the cookbook, the author includes Times Gone By sections that place the recipes within an historical context. There are also Etiquette Lessons scattered throughout. For example, did you know that a true tea sandwich has the crusts removed only after the sandwich has been prepared and not before?

While most of the recipes in the book call for ingredients that are easily accessible by modern cooks, a few of the recipes are a little authentic for my taste. Take, for example, O'Brien's Black Pudding, which calls for fresh pork blood, or Boiled Beef Tongue for breakfast. Erica and I may have surreptitiously eyed local turtles for the turtle soup recipe, but I can assure you that no turtles were harmed.

We thoroghly enjoyed all of the dishes we made. In fact, it was hard to decide which recipe to share with you. I think our favorites were the Crunchy Fig and Bleu Cheese Tarts, Lady Mary's Crab Canapés, and the Sweet Cream Scones. Mrs. Isobel Crawley's Smoked Salmon Tea Sandwhiches were quite good too. After eating them for breakfast for the next several days, I decided that you really should have the Sweet Cream Scone Recipe. I have made a lot of scones, and these are probably the best I have ever made. They are moist, somewhat sweet, and very tasty.

Sweet Cream Scones

 Sweet Cream Scones Receipe from The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook

1 cup sour cream
1 teaspooon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 cups all-purpose flour
1½ cups sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into pieces
1 egg, at room temperature
Heavy cream for brushing
Granulated sugar for sprinkling

1. Blend sour cream, vanilla extract, and baking soda together in a small bowl. Set aside.
2. Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a large baking sheet.
3. In a lare bowl, blend together flour, sugar, baking powder, cream of tartar, and salt.Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs. Stir in sour-cream mixture and eggs until just barely moistened.
4. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface, kneading briefly. Pat dough out into a 3/4-inch-thick round. Cut into 12 wedges and place them 2-3 inches apart on the greased baking sheet. Lightly brush with cream, then sprinkle with granulated sugar.
5. Bake 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on the bottom.

If you are a fan of Downton Abbey who also enjoys cooking, you probably need your own copy of this cookbook.

(photos from: Target-book cover image, me)

Giveaway details:

Now, one lucky Food Lush reader can comment for the chance to win your very own copy of The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook!

GIVEAWAY: One copy of The Unofficial Downton Abbey Cookbook
TO ENTER:  Comment, answering the question "Are you a Downton Abbey fan?" 
GIVEAWAY ENDS: January 11th (this Friday) at 11:50pm PST
SHIPS: To any U.S. reader
EXTRA DETAILS: One comment per reader. Winner will be selected through random.org and announced as an update to this post by January 14th (that's one week from today).

Official Food Lush Gift Guide GIVEAWAY Winner!

By Jennie

What a great gift guide giveaway! It was fun to see all the comments (and what you might pick) trickle into my inbox. Our winner is:

Congrats April! I'll be in touch.

Giveaway Winner: Simple Food For Busy Families

By Jennie

Thanks for the comments on our healthy living cookbook giveaway! I'm already a big fan of Simple Food for Busy Families, and I'm excited for one of you to get your own copy.

Congrats to...

 

Jesabes! I'll be in touch soon.

The Unofficial Harry Potter Giveaway Winner

By Jennie

Thanks for all the comments on last week's The Unofficial Harry Potter giveaway! If any of you decide to throw Harry Potter-themed parties now, let us know (and maybe invite all of Food Lush? pretty please?).

(image from: www.dinahbucholz.com)

We have a winner for you...

Congrats Gail! I'll be in touch.

Farnum Hill Cider Tote Bag Giveaway Winner!

By Jennie

Thanks for the comments on last week's giveaway (and I hope you have snatched up a bottle of Farnum Hill Cider if it's anywhere near you since the post went live).

Our winner is....

Congrats to kathleenicanrah! I'll be in touch today.

To everyone else, here's to a happy, cider-filled fall.

Dinner: A Love Story Giveaway Winner!

By Jennie

Quick break from our Hometown posts to announce our latest giveaway winner. First, thanks for all the comments on our Dinner: A Love Story Review/Giveaway (and another thanks to Sara for the review).

Now, onto our winner...

Congrats DBW! I'll be in touch shortly.

Dinner: A Love Story, Cookbook Review + Giveaway

Editor's Note: We have a treat today! Sara, a lovely Style Lush writer, is reviewing one of her favorite cookbooks for us -- and if you read to the end, there's a chance for you can win your very own copy!

***

By Sara

I can’t believe I am going to admit this on a foodie site but for a long time I never cared much for cooking. I know! It seemed silly to worry about cooking when it was just me and when I was first married, my husband and I would spend many leisurely hours at restaurants paying someone else to make us delicious meals. I figured I probably wasn’t very good at cooking since I didn’t know how to look in the fridge and pantry and just “whip something up.”

Then the first baby came along and did you know that at some point babies want to eat food aside from milk? That was news to me. Strangely, this little baby couldn’t cook for himself so it was up to me to do it for him. I still managed to do as little cooking as possible in his first couple years and my husband and I subsisted on a steady diet of whatever could be thrown together in ten minutes. We ate a lot of pasta.

Then something slowly started to change. We had a second baby last fall and suddenly it dawned on me that we had a family to feed. These people required sustenance and nourishment and someone to grocery shop for them. To say it took a decade to get me on board with cooking wouldn’t be an exaggeration … at all. So I started to seek out cooking blogs, recipe blogs, and family blogs -- anywhere I could find ways to make cooking for my family easy and fun for all of us. I needed guidance and someone to tell me what to do or how to do it. I began experimenting in the kitchen, well, as much experimenting as I could do with a three year old and newborn hanging on my person at all times. Through some trial and error I discovered that I didn’t totally suck at cooking. In fact, I was actually pretty decent at it. It quickly became incredibly important to me that I make cooking dinner a priority and, here is the summit of the proverbial mountain, eat it together.

Around last October I came across the epitome of cooking blogs. The queen of simple recipe blogs. The high priestess of family dinner … and no, I am NOT talking about that woman out on the ranch with the show on TV. I’m talking about Dinner: A Love Story. Jenny Rosenstrach, a former editor for Cookie magazine and Real Simple, authors this refreshing, witty, and friendly blog about her mission to bring families back to the dinner table. Her tagline says it all “it all begins at the family table.” BAM. Yes, it does.

(Photo from goodreads.com)

Not only does Jenny write this endearing blog but she also just wrote a cookbook, also titled Dinner: A Love Story! Wait, in all honesty, it’s not just a cookbook. It’s a family book. It’s her love story about her family and about finding joy in feeding her family as often as possible. There are no overarching platitudes about how your children will grow up to be drug smugglers if you don’t feed them farm fresh dinners and eat together every single night. Instead she writes a lyrical memoir about what eating together as a family means to her, interspersed with simple recipes for dinners at all stages of life. There are recipes for the newly adult living on their own for the first time.

There are recipes for young families where the thought of standing over the stove for an hour while also entertaining the under-three set makes you want to pack your bags for Aruba … alone. And there are recipes for families with growing children who have the ability (not necessarily the inclination, however) to sit still and enjoy a meal with their parents.

Jenny has written this book for all of us, wherever we are in our family lives. You don’t have to be an incredible chef to execute her dishes. They’re simple, fresh and very few include what she calls “page turners”( i.e. ingredients that just make a recipe seem insurmountable). As a loyal reader of the blog, I’ve been making a number of her recipes for a while now and was excited to see some wonderful new ones in the book.

My confidence in the kitchen has grown and our family dinner future looks so much brighter because of Dinner: A Love Story.

Do YOU want the chance to bring your family closer together over the dinner table? How about your very own copy of Dinner: A Love Story?

The rules & guidelines:

• To enter: Leave a comment answering the question: My favorite family meal is ______.
• Giveaway ends: Tuesday, 7/3, at 11:59 p.m. EST. 
• Who can enter?: Anyone!
• Other notes: One comment per person, the winner will be selected by random.org and announced on the site by 7/9.

Good luck!

***

Thanks to Sara for the incredible review and to the publisher (HarperCollins) for providing a review copy.

Pure Vegan Cookbook Winner

By Jennie

Thanks to everyone who commented on last week's Pure Vegan giveaway! (I also hope you bookmarked the timbale recipe.) We have a winner to announce...

Danette! I'll be in touch ASAP for your information.

The Mom 100 Cookbook Giveaway Winner!

By Jennie

Thanks for all the comments (and delicious inspiration) on our recent Mom 100 Cookbook giveaway post. The lucky winner is:

Congrats Dawn K.

We'll be in touch shortly.