Category Archives: Play with your food

My Saffron

Edman Saffron

One of the fabulous things about living in the San Francisco Bay area is the grocery shopping. There are stores catering to the cooking styles of so many cultures and we have access to all of them. We have our favorite Japanese, Asian, Indian, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean stores. We went to one of our favorite markets, Caron International Food Market, to get Bulgarian feta, kalamatas and saffron. They keep the saffron behind the counter, with good reason. The stuff runs $500 to $5000 per pound. Last time we got some there it was a decent price, so we asked the super friendly shopkeepers for some more. Lo and behold, they pulled out a package with my name on it. Literally, my name: the package says “Edman Saffron” and my last name is Edman. How cool is that?

Keep reading for more about saffron.
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The Perfect Ammunition for Valentine’s Day

Valentine's day ammo 2

The holiday that we all collectively love to hate is sneaking up on us, which brings us right back to that all-important question: Exactly what type of projectiles should we be shooting at people? (Isn’t that what you think of when someone mentions Valentine’s day?) And yes, we’ve found the answer: Customized conversation heart ammunition.

Don’t have a decent catapult for the job? This is your perfect excuse to build one. You can make a Lego trebuchet (a leguchet), like we did, or take a peek at all the hot trebuchet action on Make this week and get creative.
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Cashews: the nut you can’t buy in a shell


Ever since we discovered them, we have been enjoying (and eating far too many of) the highly addictive Thai Lime & Chili Cashews from Trader Joe’s. These things should carry a warning label: “CAUTION: MAY BE HABIT FORMING.”

Anyway, while we eating them, we were asked if we knew why you can’t get cashews in the shell. We had no idea. Actually, we’d never thought about it. But, come to think of it, you can get almonds, walnuts, pistachios, brazil nuts, hazelnuts, peanuts, chestnuts, pine nuts, pecans, and even macadamia nuts in a shell, but not cashews.

Why? It turns out that the cashew shell is toxic. However, that raised the question of what a cashew looks like in its shell. Again, we had no idea. When we found out, we knew more people should see it. Weird looking, isn’t it? And caustic, too!
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Low Knead Pizza

Pepperoni basil garlic pizza

No knead bread is an amazingly easy recipe that allows anyone to make rustic bread at home by just stirring some stuff together and letting it sit for a while before baking in a pot.

We’ve read about it from Megan at Not Martha, who has made it so much that she’s had to post updates, and McAuliflower at Brownie Points, who has even put chocolate in hers. We’ve been having fun making, modifying, and eating our own versions. Here is our contribution to this meme: low knead pizza.
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Play with your food: A Chocolate Debian

Chocolate Debian

Every year we make chocolate truffles for the holidays. This year, we made Thanksgiving-themed truffles with dried cranberries and freshly candied orange peel, labeled with a little curl of red-colored white chocolate. We’ve decided to name this particular treat a “Chocolate Debian,” for reasons that may be obvious to some.

Making Miniature Stuffed Pizzas in Springforms

Stuffed pizzas are a Chicagoan delicacy consisting of layers of cheese and fillings above– and below– a thin pizza crust. One of the best ways to bake them is in a springform pan, so that the sides come out in perfect cylinders and come out easily. Taken to the small extreme, individual-sized stuffed pizzas are the ideal portable food to take to work for lunch. Made in miniature springform pans, they are compact, cute, tasty, filling, and are almost guaranteed to make your co-workers jealous. Read on and we’ll show you how to make your own springform stuffed pizza, in any size you like.

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Play with your food: Dessert sushi

Today on DIY:Happy, we saw a story about making dessert sushi, by Megan from notmartha.org. Megan got this idea from the same place that we did: the wonderful book The Secret Life of Food, by Clare Crespo. (Everyone should go get a copy right now.)

Two years ago we too made dessert sushi, and luckily we remembered to take some pictures.
Thanks to Megan for reminding us about the project!
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Play with your food: Edible Origami. Crane croutons for your salad.


Crispy wonton wrappers add cheerful crunch to an asian salad, but shouldn’t they be… more interesting? Presented here is the ideal upgrade. No more must you clutter your salad with amorphous crispies or chow mein noodles to obtain the requisite crunch: Crane Croutons will be your piece de resistance.
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