Finishing up the spring treat boxes — I think I want to make one more batch of chocolates, and one more batch of baked goods (I’m thinking orange & black pepper madeleines, dipped in chocolate, possibly), and then I’ll be ready to pack up and ship them, hopefully early this week.
No treat boxes in the summer, because shipping has proven unreliable for me even with ice packs, so if you sign up (see comments), the next one goes out in early autumn.
Pictured here, little Neapolitan chocolates (Callebaut white, ruby, and dark chocolate), and squares of Neapolitan chocolate with an array of mixed dried fruit.
I’m so happy that I can get idli-sambar delivered to my house, which has never been possible before (per previous note, there are a lot more Indian options on Grubhub for us than there used to be!). I was a little hesitant to try getting masala dosa delivered, because I wasn’t sure it’d travel well going 30 minutes through rush hour traffic, but I’m probably going to try it sometime when it’s not rush hour, when it’ll take more like 15 minutes. South Indian delivery options! YAY!
Tonight’s order from Siri Indian:
idli with sambar add-on, came with coconut chutney, DELICIOUS (one order has 3 idli)
mirchi bajji (fried chili) appetizer — eh. Maybe it was good when it was just fried, but after driving to us, this was very boring and dry. I had one bite and then left the rest for Kevin. Might be good with a sauce.
honey chili fried cauliflower appetizer — also eh, but mostly because it’s not really my sort of thing; I was curious. It’s from their Indo-Chinese fusion section, and it’s cauliflower battered and fried, in a slightly spicy sweet sauce. Someone else might love it, not for me.
fish curry — delicious, would happily order again
goat vindaloo — tasty, but the goat meat was both fatty and chewy, which, honestly, might be what goat meat is mostly like, it’s been a few years since I last had it, I think, and it wasn’t spicy enough to call it vindaloo in my opinion. But fine.
palak paneer — disappointingly salty, alas. Wouldn’t get again, which is a shame, because this is one of our Indian food stand-by dishes
garlic naan — good.
But did I mention the idli-sambar? 🙂 Next time, I might just get a double order of that.
Thanksgiving morning starts slow here, but with a nice moment of wrapping up one of my marshmallow samplers and a copy of A Feast of Serendib; the recipient will be picking it up from my porch to take as a Thanksgiving hosting gift.
(I almost wrote ‘hostess’ gift, and then I thought, why should I assume it’s a woman hosting? There’s so much baked into our language defaults…)
The flash sale is still running today (I’ll link in comments), in case you want a marshmallow or confection sampler, BUT ALSO, everything on my site (link also in comments) is now 20% off for Black Friday, which I gather is now being called Black Week in some places?
We’re running the sale from 11/23 -11/30. I don’t run a lot of sales, so if you’ve been thinking of picking up a copy of my cookbooks, now is your chance. (I have only a few copies of the Feast paperback left on hand; I’ll re-order tomorrow, but can’t guarantee I’ll get them here in time for holiday shipping.)
Margins are tiny on small businesses, so we can’t offer the kind of 30-40-etc% discounts you’ll see at big box stores, because we’d actually lose money. But does the big box store pack your marshmallows with love? It does not.
Marshmallows in sampler: classic passionfruit, peppermint dipped in dark chocolate, mulled apple cider and honey, rolled in powdered sugar and cinnamon
Carnivore Oak Park is going to start carrying a little of my food-themed jewelry and hand-sewn indie-designed tea towels; perfect for your holiday gifting! I’ll be dropping off these pieces later today (probably around noon), in two options – rich saffron threads, chili flake and gold leaf. Hyper-local – I live just a block away.
If you’re thinking of gifting, wouldn’t it be great to put together a luxe food-themed basket? Carnivore also carries my Sri Lankan cookbooks (both vegan and non-vegan versions, hardcover and paperback), so you could do a cookbook, some homemade Sri Lankan curry powder, a set of earrings and necklace, and a few tea towels to tie it all together. A gift a foodie would love.
Carnivore also carries a host of interesting little jars you could add in – pickles and jams and sauces (hot or otherwise). And if you’re giving a gift to be opened soon, you might include some of their delicious cheeses – they even offer pre-packaged cheese flights for your sampling pleasure. Have them slice you up some delectable salami, and you have charcuterie ready to go!
One of the libraries has a monthly spice club, and they had me do little curry powder packets for their club – Eliana packaged them up for me, with some recipes, etc., and it just came out very cute.
Quick note for locals that there are jars of freshly-made Sri Lankan dark-roasted curry powder (lovely as a grill rub, or on popcorn, as well as in curry) at Carnivore Oak Park, along with signed cookbooks.
And Roshani noticed that there were some hardcovers of Vegan Serendib at The Book Table, so I stopped in and signed those too.
Making some fresh roasted Sri Lankan curry powder this morning — local store Carnivore Oak Park wanted some more cookbooks and curry powder, so I’ll be dropping a few jars off later today.
