From dessertsforbreakfast.com
Sorry to be out of touch, blog readers! I’ve been taking a mini break from the blog as I start a new job (not so tiny; moderately wonderful.)
BUT I’m still finding tiny, wonderful things and sharing them on Pinterest. Come hang out with me there for more regularly updated tiny inspiration… like these s’mores cakelettes from http://www.dessertsforbreakfast.com.
Leafcutter Design's Smallest Post Service
Good things come in small packages, right? Leafcutter Designs has the World’s Smallest Post Service, allowing you to send a (very) little hello—complete with a magnifying glass. Seems like you’d need the right sort of message to warrant such a tiny correspondence…
Leafcutter suggests “You’re as cute as a button”—with a button. Some other ideas:
“I love you. Just a little.”
“It’s a small world.” (Sent with a tiny map of your next adventure.)
“Just found out I’m pregnant. Right now, the baby might fit in this box.” (Too weird?)
“A little help from your friends.” (Sent with a penny.)
“Let’s start something.” (Sent with a seed.)
Food with a view and a soundtrack doesn’t need much more of a selling point. So, I’m totally excited about Seattle mobile culinary tour company White Moustache’s “Musical Plates” food tour coming up Sunday, Nov. 6.
White Moustache teamed up with Seattle folk band Goldfinch, asked the band members for their favorite foods, and built a mobile tour around their selections. You hop on the tour van at 4:30, spend the next three hours driving and dining (presumably separately), and at each stop Goldfinch shows up to play.
At $60, it’s do-able, assuming good quality food. The stops are a surprise, but White Moustache tweeted me these hints:
Magic with cheese, figs, & prosciutto to satisfy female lead’s sweet & savory fetish….
“I want bread like my mom used to bake.” —drummer.
Trumpet player says, “Fried chicken and fried okra is good for you.”
The lead singer loves meat-on-a-stick from his days in Afghanistan.
Novel concept, collaboration between music and food? Totally tiny, wonderful.
It also got me thinking of other multi-stop Seattle music/food pairings I’d love to see. If only fantastic country gal Zoe Muth would take us to down-home places like Ezell’s, Nook, Kingfish, or Little Red Hen (for whiskey shots, naturally). Or maybe Hey Marseilles can take us on a eclectic, worldly tour to B&O, Bizarro, Cafe Presse. Chris Cornell on the dive bar tour? Stops at Mecca Cafe, Beth’s, the Crocodile…
Any tours you’d pay big bucks to go on/eat through?
Don't eat it. (By Jessica Hlavac/i'm so tiny)
I just discovered artist Jessica Hlavac and her blog, i’m so tiny. Hlavac crafts minuscule, incredibly realistic food. Why? Her mission statement, according to Facebok: “to freak you out and make you hungry.” It’s beautiful, quirky, and weirdly delectable (-looking… don’t actually try to eat them. I doubt they’re filling.).
She’s part of Gothtober, an online museum of sort, rolling out 31 works of art by 31 different artists a day at a time leading up to Halloween. Her pie creation (in reverse) is #2 on the calendar. Timely and inspirational in case you were looking for a very small craft project to attempt.
Speaking of calendars, you can buy an actual calendar of just Hlavac’s pictures, which is pretty adorable. My birthday month is a caprese salad on a piece of bowtie pasta. Delicious.
I will admit that as a kid, I loved miniatures. And when I say loved, I mean devoted my entire existence to. Tiny food, tiny Kleenex boxes, a mini piano. Whatever. If I was holding a tiny version of some ordinary thing, I was ecstatic. My dad and I built a dollhouse when I was 10, and I spent the next years populating it with whatever my allowance could buy me.
So, OK, now I’ve grown out of afternoons with the bear family and their tiny turkey dinners. But, I am in love with the burgeoning trend of tiny-thing-inspired jewelery, especially food related (of course). It’s like a trip back to the dollhouse that won’t put me in the same category as Lady-With-Cat-Sweaters or Weirdo-With-Stuffed-Animal-Collection.
Here are some of my favorites.
Lord knows I love pancakes. Someone could propose to me with this puppy. Pancake Ring from SouZouCreations.
Baker's Cupcake Necklace from FreshyFig. Fat free.
Gold eyeglasses from HappyGift. My friend Kiki has these. They totally make her smarter.
Fruit Tart Earrings from PetitPlat. Take a second to look at her whole collection on Etsy, it's pretty awesome.
Tiny working harmonica pendant from Jaimia Jewelery. Wear it to your next jam session.
"Return to Form" by Kevin Rosinbum
Hummingbirds are perhaps the tiniest and wonderfulest (not a word, I know) of birds. And my friend Kevin, an amazing photographer, is remarkably adept at capturing them.
Take a second to peruse the Flickr set he just created to house his hummingbird shots, including the incredible one to the right. Happy Friday!
Huckleberry Clafouti served at Dog Mountain Farm.
On Saturday I was lucky enough to volunteer for a Dog Mountain Farm dinner, part of an on-going summer outdoor cooking/eating experience at the beautiful farm about an hour east of Seattle near Carnation. Each dinner features the work of a different awesome Seattle chef. Saturday was Executive Chef Michelle Retallack of new downtown hotspot RN74.
Not a lot about the meal was tiny: big tables set up in the orchard, a crowd of over 50, and overflowing family style platters: huge homemade sausages snaked around farm-fresh fava and cannellini beans; bowls piled with yellow and red tomatoes and watermelon; perfectly juicy hanger chicken slabbed on thick cuts of rustic bread. The three of us volunteers ran plates to the diners, washed dishes, and had the pleasure of watching Michelle and her fantastic team very calmly roll out four courses plus three appetizers. And, delightfully, we got to try everything.
Blackberry meringue kisses.
But the tiny, wonderful food moment of the night came during dessert (pictured above), a so-pretty-I-almost-don’t-want-to-eat-it huckleberry clafouti topped with peaches and a few different types of edible flowers, created by RN74′s pastry Pastry Sous Chef Kim Mahar. And one of the toppings? Blackberry meringue kisses.
Awesome. Here’s a post from The Kitchn about how to make meringue treats like that. It’s not too tough, though apparently it’s best to not make them on days with high humidity. I guess today’s out…
Here are a few more pictures from the event, which I highly recommend, as a volunteer or guest. The next (and last) dinner of the season is Saturday, Sept. 24. The chefs are Mark Fuller and Marjorie Chang Fuller of Spring Hill. There will be wine (each course is paired) from Apex at Alder Ridge wines.
Dining al fresco. Don't forget sunblock.
The volunteer table by the end of the night. Nothing small about that.
Yeah, that's nice.
