How can you make water more filling? | Ask MetaFilter.

Craftzine.com blog : How-To: Hard Candy Jewels.

Aunt Jemima Does Pigs In A Blanket, at Jezebel. I've made bacon stuffed waffles before, but I love these pancakes, must make them soon.

How to preheat a frying pan.

What's a higher quality or darker chocolate version of Nestle Crunch? | Ask MetaFilter. Good question.

Crumpets and Cakes: cucumber gimlet. Via Liqurious.

Tea & Cookies: Clean Out the Fridge Frittata. I have eaten this (the very one in the photo I believe) and it was amazing.

Giant Popsicles at Kookouts, made by Tom Nardone (whom you might know from Extreme Pumpkins). I love these simple ideas for giant cookout foods, but especially these oversized popsicles.

The Top Five Hotel Bars In Seattle - Seattle Restaurants and Dining - Voracious.

Seattle Best Pretzel Outside Pennsylvania - Oma Stein's pretzels - Best Of Seattle - Seattle Weekly. Must be sure to seek out these pretzels soon.

Vodka Watermelon! How to Fill a Fruit with Booze Sweet Paul | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn. Somehow I have never encountered a vodka watermelon in person. This lack will be corrected shortly.

Celebration Cakes | smitten kitchen. I think I want to bake a cake, I'm peering at this page as inspiration.

15 Essential Dips and Spreads for Summer Parties Recipe Roundup | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn.

What does cook until thick mean? « Baking Bites. A visual guide to what coating the back of a spoon looks like, something I never learned.

Tea & Cookies: How To Make Fresh Pasta (for Karen).

Garlic Cheese Bread Recipe | Savory Sweet Life - Easy Recipes from an Everyday Home Cook.

How to make perfect vodka watermelon? | Ask MetaFilter.

How to Make Perfect Uniform Hamburger Patties | Savory Sweet Life/a>.

ALL THE WORLD...: Happy Birthday Mack!!. This aquarium cake is very very cool, via Design Mom.

Tool Crush: KitchenAid Pasta Press Attachment | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn. Oh my gosh, a pasta extruder. And it even makes bucatini (hollow spaghetti).

Deliciousness in a glass « Busywork. This caramel sauce sounds divine, I'll make it soon.

Archaeo-alcohology, tasting Dogfish Head’s Theobroma beer. Via The Morning News.

Orangette: You deserve a waffle. Molly picks winners for both yeasted and regular waffles, I love that one is named "The Waffle of Insane Greatness".

Bacon Fruit Cups, at Instructables.

10 Good Cheap Liquors : Tips from the experts on the best values in booze - CHOW. Booze is expensive here in Washington, we can use all the help possible seeking out inexpensive and good oens.

LOST Finale Recipe: Smoke Monster Popcorn | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn. Hee hee!

Harmful Drinks in America | World Of Mysteries. Sodas, beer, energy drinks, milkshakes and iced coffee drinks next to their sugar equivalent in food. All shocking and will have you sipping plain green tea in no time. My favorite though was the McDonald's vs. McDonald's comparison: one large Triple Thick Chocolate Shake has the equivalent amount of sugar to 13 Baked Hot Apple Pies. And it's not even the worst in terms of calories. Yikes.

Chai Tea and Vietnamese Coffee Gelatins: Jiggly Desserts! | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn.

What do Marion and Belloq drink at Tanis in Raiders of the Lost Ark? | Ask MetaFilter. At the time I'm typing this there are only five answers, but I adore how very geeky and sincere they all are. Viva la nerd.

BeerFilter: I usually like bitter things, but I can't get into IPAs. Please explain them to me in very small words. | Ask MetaFilter.

make grow gather - eat your heart out, gilligan. An underwater restaurant in a private house boat owned by Forbes Thor Kiddoo floating just off a small island that holds a lighthouse near San Francisco accessible only by ferry? I must get myself here. (How did I not know about this already?)

I made gin! Well, sort of. I infused vodka in the hopes of making gin. I used the recipe I found at Newcity Restro by way of Cinnamon. I think this recipe was originally from the book The Modern Mixologist by Tony Abou-Ganim. I made a few changes based on what I suspected would be orange zest heavy and, well, it still turned out orange zest heavy. (One should note, however, that I seem to be unusually sensitive to the presence of orange zest. I don't know why, but I find it utterly overwhelms everything it comes in contact with, ruing many a nice pastry, cranberry relish, or chocolate for me.)

The infused recipe calls for running some vodka through a Brita filter a few times. I just happened to have an unused Brita pitcher around (courtesy of last year's BlogHer Food swag bag) so I did that, though I suspect the step could be skipped.

I took a quick side trip to World Spice down by Pike Place Market where you can buy by the ounce and procured the list of spices (listed below). World Spice, by the way, is awfully fun. They have samples of one ounce examples (surprisingly helpful!) of each offering that you can sniff and examine as you shop, and you write you order on a little clipboard. They also offer a breathtaking number of mixes and rubs and salts.

The recipe has you put juniper berries in first for a 12-hour soak. We were curious and each ate a dried juniper berry. I found it to be very much like men's cologne, which Scott summed up nicely by declaring it was like chewing on Grey Flannel. Most people declare Christmas tree, we are here to say cologne.

After 12 hours you add more botanicals and let soak for another 12 hours. Here is a before and after:

DIY Gin

• Run a 1.75 L bottle of Smirnoff vodka through a water filter like a Brita about three times if you happen to have one. Or skip this step, it likely won't make a difference.
• Add 2 1/2 tablespoons of juniper berries. Let sit for 12 hours.
• Add:
  • 1/8 tsp fennel seed
  • four black peppercorns
  • 1/4 tsp allspice berries
  • 3/4 tsp coriander seeds
  • 1/8 tsp grains of paradise (I added these, you might want to skip)
  • 3/4 tsp fresh orange zest (original calls for 1 tsp)
  • 3/4 tsp lemon zest (original calls for 1/2 tsp)
  • one sprig rosemary
• Let sit for another 12 hours.
• Strain through a a fine mesh, and if you can manage, back into it's bottle.

Notes:

It came out smelling vegetal, and while Scott reports that it tastes nice I still find it the orange zest a bit strong, adding a too-sweet note. I don't dislike it, but I prefer my gin clean and crisp and, yes, pine-y. I realize that this might not be possible to create by infusing spirits. Still, the experiment fun and I might try it again. But first we'll have to have a cocktail party or two to use this up. Punch anybody?

First let me just say that due to arcane liquor laws in the state of Washington a 1.75 liter bottle of Smirnoff is closer to $30 than $17. I wish I'd halved the recipe as this turned out to be an expensive experiment, and should you live in an area with similar conditions I encourage you to do so.

The final mixture was colored a ginger ale yellow. Not ugly, but not the crystal clear-to-blueish gin I'm used to. I'm sure this had an effect on my perception.

Of all the dried botanicals added the grains of paradise were the only ones that didn't float. Perhaps it was a bad addition on my part but it is listed as one of the things that goes into Bombay Sapphire. This Wikipedia article on gin doesn't mention it. Should I try this again I'll leave those out.

So far my diligent research tells me that this gin in better served with a slice of cucumber than an olive. I will perform more diligent research in subsequent evenings where I don't require sobriety.

Should I try it again I'll leave out orange zest altogether, and probably only use half a sprig or rosemary. I will leave out the grains of paradise as well, for the sake of research.

There are, of course, a lot of recipes for infusing your own gin that you can find with a simple Google search. It'll take a while to test them all but we're up for it. I think next will be this one from Gourmet magazine.

update: I did indeed try the Gourmet recipe and liked it a lot better, go see try #2 here.

We're getting ready to declare a media blackout in our house so we can avoid any spoilers about the ending of Lost. We've even planned a themed meal for the event at the last moment, in our case we're going to buy some pulled pork from our favorite BBQ place, seek out a mango and drink beer decorated with Dharma Initiative food labels. They have a huge amount of labels there, even an Oceanic Air customizable boarding pass. Neat.

The Kitchn has a whole Lost meal plan, including this mysterious and yummy sounding Smoke Monster Popcorn.

Strawberries have been good this year, have you noticed? Apparently growing conditions have produced a wealth of them but they won't be available for long (something I overheard at my local market but didn't get a chance to learn about in more detail, so take it as you will). Some of the nice spring days here in Seattle recently have been very, very nice, so when we found ourselves both home for dinner I made hot dogs, the Magic Juice from Design*Sponge, and we had our first picnic dinner on the porch. The Magic Juice is refreshing, subtle, not too sweet, and really delicious. If you have not tried it yet I hereby recommend you find the intersection of a warm evening, free time and good company and try it out. I hope all three find you this weekend!

Our last Cookbook Club selection was Tessa Kiros's Falling Cloudberries. It's a beautiful book full of vivid and emotive photographs. It's also huge and packed full of recipes, more than one would expect. The full title is Falling Cloudberries: A World of Family Recipes and the recipes are divided by region, Tessa Kiros grew up with a Finnish mother, a Greek-Cypriot father and she grew up in South Africa before traveling the world and settling in Tuscany. The recipes are interspersed with memories of family members and the food they would make, and we are told which family member each recipe comes from.

The club's consensus? Gorgeous and inspiring book but we would have liked a bit more detail with the recipes. The desire for numbered steps was voiced, and I myself needed a whole lot more explanation as to why I was doing certain things, as well as a bit more detail. At one point the instruction to "add the remaining sugar" stalled me while I read back to the ingredients list, then down through the recipe to find out how much sugar I had already used. Most people admitted to making some changes to recipes, especially if it was the second time they'd made it. That said, all the food was amazingly good.

The Youvetsi was warm and delicious. Maggi gives us the recipe with some changes she made over at her site, Whatever Lola Cooks, Lola Eats.

The chickpea salad was delicious, with a good amount of feta.

The carrot salad was refreshing with mint and some ginger added warmth.

This cous cous was also yummy, I'm not normally a fan.

The dolmades were good but I think the consensus was that they could have used more salt.

The ribs were outright amazing. I was wearing a white dress and I'm shocked I didn't get any sauce on it.

This semolina cake was a good texture and had a delicate flavor going on. Maggi reports the flavor was better the next day.

I had no more room to try one of these kourapiedes, but I overheard that they melted in your mouth in a delightful way.

The milk tart was thin but tasty. The cook reported that she used a pate sucre crust as the curst the book called for bubbled up beyond control despite using pie weights.

I really liked the carrot cake, it was delicately spiced and not too sweet. It was drier and more dense than carrot cake I'm used to but it was balanced well by the fluffy, buttery icing. The baker reported she didn't use all the frosting as it seemed like an awful lot, but after seeing how it worked she would have added the rest.

And the creme caramel was mine. I added a vanilla bean which dotted the top. It wasn't as pretty as the non-vanilla bean one (recipe here) but I liked the additional flavor.

For more eloquent tasting notes than my own, please visit Maggi's Cookbook Club set over at Flickr. She also shares the recipe for Cardamom Buns.

Curio Confection - rosette apple pie. This is gorgeous.

A hash convert, at Hogwash.

Suburban Bliss:: Spring Cocktails: Backyard Sandbox Playdate. Yum.

DIY Candy Gemstones | Intimate Weddings.

Hummus with Green Goo Recipe - 101 Cookbooks.

Sugar Cookies Save the Day! | Apartment Therapy The Kitchn. Keeping this for next Christmas.

Orangette: Her recipe box. I will be making this simple recipe for Cinnamon Toasts soon, I bet it's amazing.

Not So Humble Pie: Lollipops & Sugar Science Ramblings.

Sous-Vide 101: Slow-Cooked Eggs | Serious Eats.

A wine geek's guide to some great bourbons - Cocktails and Spirits - Salon.com. Bookmarking this one for Scott.

Tea & Cookies: Warming up the Cold: Ginger Jam.

Alligator Chicken Noodle Soup | Cooking Momofuku at home - Momofuku for two. Adorable! Via The Kitchn.

The Pancake Project: The Search for Breakfast Perfection continues:. Pancakes shaped like other breakfast items, cute.

Bullshit, revisited « Kathleen Flinn. I have to admit that I cannot truthfully say "I don't have time to cook." So instead I'll outright admit that I simply hate (hate hate) prepping, washing, chopping and cleaning up on weeknights. So far I've started making lots of things from scratch that we freeze in dinner-sized portions. I cannot tell you how much better we've been eating since I've been doing that. Also, I get a lot of pleasure from taking the time to make a gigantic batch of bolognese or curry on a lazy Sunday.

the decorated cookie: tea and cookies (over the rim treats for mom). My gingerbread houses for the edge of a mug came from the idea for cookies like these that are meant to perch on a mug. My cookies would all flip off because I was using dough that was too thin, I bet these with the thicker dough would work out great.

Video: Inside-Out Grilled Cheese Sandwich | Serious Eats.

The Basics: How to Make Rice Pudding : Creamy, comforting goodness - CHOW.

How To Make Caramels For Someone You Like | Nothing But Bonfires.

Make your own gin | Newcity Resto. In only 24 hours! Via Cinnamon on Twitter.

How to Trim an Artichoke | Simply Recipes.

This is my test Creme Caramel, I'll be making another for an upcoming Cookbook Club. You wish you were here for lunch today.

Creme Caramel

From Falling Cloudberries, slight change and notes by Megan Reardon (www.notmartha.org).

• 2 cups sugar
• 4 cups milk (I went ahead and used whole milk)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• insides from one vanilla bean (this is my addition, you can leave this out)
• 6 eggs

You'll want enough time to let this cool in the fridge overnight, or at least a few hours.

You'll also need a roasting pan large enough to hold your cake pan and tall enough to allow for a water bath. I keep a large disposable aluminum roasting pan in my house for this purpose since I have no place to keep a serious roasting pan, the aluminum one can be shoved on it's side in the back of a lesser used cupboard.

You can also divide this among ramekins for individual desserts, but in this case I think the whole custard is a glorious sight. I would not use jars for this, I think they would crack when you pour in the caramel.

Preheat the oven to 310 degrees.

Make the caramel
Get a large bowl of ice water and set it on the counter. Hot sugar burns, if you get some on your hands plunge them into this water. Put one cup of the sugar into a large (I used a 4-quart) saucepan, add about 1/4 cup water and turn the heat on medium-high. Don't leave, watch this pot. Mix just so that the sugar is dissolved then let it bubble. When it starts to brown swirl the pan to distribute the heat. It will brown very quickly at this point, once it's a a nice golden brown pour it directly into an angel food cake pan. Swirl the pan, you might need potholders as my cake pan heated up quickly from the sugar, so that the caramel coats the bottom and a little way up the sides.

At this point my caramel cooled, and actually turned hard, then cracked! I was certain I'd heated it too long and I would end up with a custard topped by hard candy, but when the whole thing was turned out I did indeed have a lovely caramel sauce. So, don't worry if you have ended up making hard candy, apparently it softens.

Make the custard
Start some water boiling, you'll want enough to create a water bath (this is one of those moments I love my electric kettle). Mix together the eggs, vanilla extract and the remaining one cup of sugar in a large bowl. Heat the milk and the vanilla bean insides in a saucepan until it almost boils, then take it off the heat. Add a ladle of the hot milk to the sugar and egg mixture and stir it in to temper the eggs and make sure they don't cook. Add a few more ladlefuls, whisking lightly between each addition, and slowly add the rest of the milk. You don't want the mixture to get frothy though. Strain the custard into a pitcher or large pour-able bowl. I used a regular gauge strainer and it caught some blobs of egg yolk, I think that's all you want to catch. Pour this mixture into your cake pan.

Place your roasting pan (or whatever you're using for your water bath) in the center of the oven, put down the cake pan, then pour just boiled water into the roasting pan, enough so that it is half way up the side of the cake pan. I've also seen Martha Stewart also place a folded kitchen towel beneath the cake pan to keep it from sliding around in the water bath.

Bake for 50 or 60 minutes. Falling Cloudberries says "until the top is golden in parts, quite set but still a little wobbly". Mine didn't turn golden in spots, it was an even color, but it was both set and wobbly and turned out great. Cover with plastic and put it in the fridge, preferably overnight but at least a few hours.

To serve
Loosen the edges, either with a knife (I have a nylon spreader I use for this) or by tugging the top with your fingers or a spoon. Turn it onto a large serving dish that will contain the caramel sauce, and there will be lots of it. In my experience, as shown above, you'll need something larger than a dinner plate. Your best bet here is to put the plate on top of the cake pan, get a firm hold and flip them both at the same time. Spoon the caramel over the slices you'll serve. Mmm.

See also/instead: Julia Child's recipe for Creme Caramel at Whisk.