Kitchen Tool Corner: Something Old, Something New

In 2010, I encouraged investing in a Le Creuset saucier. Some years later, I stand by that endorsement. Here is that same vessel practically making my Thanksgiving cranberry sauce for me. This thing has never let me down. If you haven't gotten one yet, you may want to start dropping hints to Santa.

In the something new department, I have a two-fer for you. The first is a fluted bundt pan. I recommend the Nordic Ware Heritage Bundt, depending on where you buy it (or which catalog you dog-ear and leave on the coffee table as a powerful suggestion), it will cost somewhere from $30-$40. Its heavy construction cooks like a dream and the non-stick surface will release your sweet creation with perfect definition certain to impress. For some reason most people don't realize these shapes are actually made by the shape of pan you use and I find the oohs and ahs that come from using this one yield a pretty good kitchen tool ROI.

Now you need something to carry your cake in. I recommend this collapsible cupcake and cake carrier. After you took care, or your pan did anyway, to make sure each peak came out perfectly, do not risk ruining your cake in transit by wrapping it in saran wrap and shoving it in a bag.

This carrier has the flexibility to transport small cakes, large cakes and cupcakes and has a handle for easy carrying. And for those living in New York shoe box apartments, the collapsible feature is a nice bonus, or in some cases a must. This carrier will run you around $30 but there is something that lets party guests know you mean business when you show up brandishing this case like the hope diamond is inside.

Blue Plate Special, Devil Style

Look what just hit the (virtual) press! A new issue of the Polycam featuring Chinese food impresario Ed Schoenfeld of Red Farm (who knew we were fellow Blue Devils!), the Schnipper brothers of the eponymous Schnipper's Quality Kitchen, me, and fellow classmate and barbecue bad ass Ken Hess, who I featured on this blog way back when. I don't know about the hot dog with the fried egg on top but am very excited to see Poly alums taking the food world by storm! Bon Appétit!

Let Them Eat Cake Cont'd

Loving all the food mentions during the Tour. Apparently fierce German Andre Greipel loves cake. I am starting to think it is only the American pro cyclists who are manorexic and the Europeans like to live a little. See also video in below post - Blogger tech fail to be able to embed a video and a tweet in the same post.

Thanks 4 all the birthday wishes and the nice stage win @tonygallopin. Congrats to all involved and thanks 4 the cake pic.twitter.com/BtCsrAPTum
— Andre Greipel (@AndreGreipel) July 16, 2014

Let Them Eat Cake... and Snickers, and Coke, and Sandwiches

Eating on Tour

I know, I haven't posted in ages. So why now, after eons of dormancy, have I re-emerged and dusted off my blog? Because there are awesome people out there who love both food and bikes and they need to read this.

As I have been following this year's Tour de France, I have been struck by the number of Twitter posts combining two of my favorite hobbies: food and cycling. I might expect as much from people like Trek Factory Racing team chef Kim Rokkjaer, who posts almost exclusively about what he is feeding his boys.

Restday // noo stress - sloooww cooked lamb legs - yum yum chef like )) pic.twitter.com/mgyzMjDFcR
— Kim Rokkjær (@kimrokk) July 15, 2014

But I find some of the rest curious only in so much as professional cyclists tend to spend all day eating artificial food that comes in strange little space-like packets or candy bar wrappers and then, when off the bike, starve themselves like high school cheerleaders to keep their weight down.

So, while news of his untimely flat was sad, I was delighted to stumble upon this tweet from Fabian Cancellara:

The foie gras was my starter,main course and dessert.this help it me a bit out to go over the puncture i had. pic.twitter.com/wmwVdeO5iX
— Fabian cancellara (@f_cancellara) July 11, 2014

Foie gras makes me happy too.

But perhaps an even better find is this post from Bicycling Magazine, featuring edible art of the Tour's wheeled warriors. Most of the chosen paints / ingredients are clever, such as current yellow jersey wearer Vincenzo Nibali rendered in pasta sauce. I think my two favorites are Jens Voigt in Sriracha and Peter Sagan in wasabi but click through to see the rest of the peloton.

[UPDATE: Click through to the original artist's blog  or Twitter feed @pedalstrike to go straight to the source and see more of these awesome creations]