New Kid on the Blog

Food connects people. Toasted baguette with soft, salty butter and seedy strawberry jam with hot coffee; an ear of sweet, fresh July corn plucked from the boil, my dad typewritering through his before I even finish applying the requisite butter-salt-pepper; the spicy bite of the soft, bouncy crumb cake from my grandmother's recipe. All of these tastes, textures, and smells I have indelibly connected to memories of place and people. Whether with close friends, neighbors, family, or complete strangers, our rituals of food, whatever form they take in time and circumstance, are evidence that food feeds more than our bodies when we make and share it with those around us.

So, you may be asking: Just who is this "Fermentationette"? In reality, she is the diminutive version of the Mad Fermentationist (from here, Mike) in a few key respects, being: far shorter in stature; much less learned in the fermenting arts (fermenter-in-training, I believe is my official title); and less measure-y about, well, most things.

What I may lack in stature, mad brewing (fermenting) skills, and detail to numbers, I hope to make up for by contributing a witty, once-weekly post recounting our (Mike and I) latest culinary collaboration; in addition to a beer pairing, likely supplemented with vocabulary and measurements from this blog's creator. For each, I'll do my best to estimate the amounts of time, kind, and temperature as necessary for each stage and ingredient. Keep in mind, though, that we basically make it up as we go, so consider our rough recipes more as guidelines for your preference/imagination.

The forces at work in these weekly adventures revolve around the caffeined collaboration of Sunday (and occasionally Saturday) morning treks to the farmer's market. We make our way seeking what's new, what's fresh, and most importantly, what looks good; ingredients we slowly weave into the haphazard balance of flavor and texture, for some lunch we've dreamed up in our brains.

The idea for such a weekly posting was borne from the fusion of a few well-timed ideas:

First, that people who appreciate and make beer also almost inevitably appreciate the experiment, accompaniment and sharing of food;

Second, that our Sunday food spectacles -- whether a resounding success or "still-technically-edible" -- warrant a record for both progeny's (and our own) enjoyment and learning; and,

Finally, that Mike wants to grow this blog by cultivating new contributors, recognizing the premise that people -- for all their habits and idiosyncrasies -- are as diverse as they are creative; and as hungry as they are thirsty.

Audrey