Golden State-shaped cutting boards

A Brooklyn-based husband-and-wife design duo made state-shaped cutting boards for their wedding last year and, after lots of oohs and aahs, decided to turn their craft into a business venture on Etsy.

The cutting boards are made from Plyboo, a butcher block architectural plywood made from 100% rapidly renewable bamboo. They can be cut to resemble any state -- even Maryland (see below) -- featuring a heart engraved over wherever you call home. Sold for $40 each, the boards can be purchased at etsy.com/shop/AHeirloom.

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Outstanding in the Field coming to L.A.

Hot cheesecake from Mount Zion Hotel

-- Caitlin Keller

Photo credits: Amy Stringer-Mowat

Outstanding in the Field comes to town in November

Outstanding in the Field -- a mobile supper club, if you will -- is finishing up its 2011 farm-to-table tour with a two-day stop in Hollywood. The big red-and-white bus tours the nation from coast to coast once a year, setting up table at diverse locations like ranches, sea caves, mountaintops and even urban landscapes; in this case, community garden Wattles Farm (just a couple blocks off Hollywood Boulevard).

Wattles Farm master gardeners Toby Leaman, who is also president of the Wattles Farm board of directors, and Reed Poverny will host the events Nov. 2 and 3.

The event on Nov. 3, featuring chef Jamie Lauren of Vodvil LA, is sold out, but there's still availability for the dinner on Nov. 2; Outstanding will be announcing the guest chef for Wednesday's event shortly.

Tickets are $220 per person and include a reception with wine and passed appetizers, a tour of the farm and a dinner using local ingredients. Outstandinginthefield.com.

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--Caitlin Keller

Photo credit: Jeremy Fenske

Survival cooking demo at High Desert Test Sites workshop

Artists Danielle McCullough and Gabie Strong will lead a sun-print cyanotype-process workshop, "Blast Site: A Workshop for Conjecture," on Nov. 12 at the High Desert Test Sites headquarters in Joshua Tree.

The workshop explores survival in the high desert, primarily grounded in post-apocalyptic science fiction, plant guides, archaeological archives and 20th century art history. The day's itinerary includes a guided hike through Blast Site, a cyanotype-process printing demonstration using sunlight and materials gathered from the desert floor, a survival cooking demonstration and a barbecued vegetarian lunch.

The lunch is part of an overall arts experience, incorporating native vegetation. Mushrooms marinated in a homemade vinegar and desert aromatics will be seared on hot rocks in a fire pit and served on mesquite flour flatbread, with pickled nopalitos, homemade yogurt and pinion seeds. Alcohol-based tinctures and teas derived from an assortment of local desert plants will be served to workshop attendees too. 

Registration for the workshop is $120 per person. Highdeserttestsites.com.

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Turntable Kitchen: food and music

Wine-grape harvest time in Santa Barbara

-- Caitlin Keller

Photo credit: Gabie Strong and Danielle McCullough, Blast Site: A Monument for Future Failures, 2011. Cyanotype fabric, painted leather, slipcrete, silver, ash, paint, pallets, wood, 16mm film with pen and ink,  and 16mm projector. Installed in at Shangrila, New Moon exhibition, Joshua Tree. Photo courtesy of Gabie Strong.

Turntable Kitchen: Pairing food and music

Food and music combined can meld two art forms into one blissful, head-bobbing, hip-shaking pairing. After dancing around the kitchen of their San Francisco apartment time and time again, Kasey and Matthew Hickey decided to take their love for food and music a step further by launching the website Turntable Kitchen.

The couple hand-picks music to be listened to while cooking and eating suggested recipes. Recent pairings include a sweet corn and raspberry ice cream paired with Canadian singer-songwriter Feist's "Let It Die"; and a blueberry-mint jam paired with the self-titled debut album by Brooklyn-based trio Widowspeak.

Through Turntable Kitchen, the Hickeys hope to introduce more people to the natural connection between food and music. To that end, Matthew picks the music and Kasey chooses the recipes. Most recently, the duo launched the Turntable Kitchen Pairings Box, a monthly subscription in which subscribers receive a hand-assembled box in the mail with a custom-mixed vinyl record featuring favorite and up-and-coming bands; seasonal, themed recipes; dried ingredients; and suggested pairing and tasting notes.

Below, the couple share their thoughts on the topic of, you guessed it, food and music:

What restaurants in San Francisco do you find yourself going to again and again -- and what do you order?

Kasey Hickey: Outerlands (any of its soups and a side of bread), NOPA (giant baked beans and a pork chop) and Koo (amazing appetizer called Spoonful of Happiness -- it's to die for, and comes with a shot of sake).

How do you begin when selecting a song?

Matthew Hickey: When I select a pairing, I like to start by thinking about the flavors in the meal. I'll write down a few descriptive terms to help get the process going with words like floral, sweet, rustic, intense, subtle, upbeat, textured, contemporary, etc.  I'll also take into account geographic factors, which can help narrow down my selections. So, for example, if we have a sweet, upbeat and rustic recipe that includes ingredients that are commonly associated with the Pacific Northwest, I'll go through my record collection and rack my brain for a band whose music is also sweet, upbeat, rustic and, ideally, from the Pacific Northwest.

Favorite cookbook?

Kasey: The Canal House series are always on heavy rotation, "Heart of the Artichoke" by David Tanis, "Good to the Grain" (for baking) and both of Heidi Swanson's books. Even though we're not vegetarians, I love her interesting twists on seasonal cooking and choices of spices and grains.

Recent ingredient-obsessed usage?

Kasey: Marash pepper -- I put it in and on everything these days. I'm obsessed!

Five favorite recipe-song pairings?

Matthew: I have a number of personal favorites, but five recent ones that come to mind are (in no particular order):

1. SBTRKT paired with honey and rose water tapioca
2. The Decemberists paired with spicy, picked green beans
3. Beirut paired with poached halibut and corn salad
4. Crab pasta paired with James Vincent McMorrow
5. The Black Keys paired with the American burger

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Photo: Turntablekitchen.com

Classic British dinners inspire stationery. Bangers & mash, anyone?

The stationery-obsessed graphic designers behind Present&Correct incorporate Britain's traditional food staples into their designs with classic English dinner-inspired letterpress note cards. Packaged in takeaway bags, dishes in paper form include pie & peas, roly-poly & custard, jelly & ice cream and bangers & mash. When it comes to the country's food culture, these iconic retro English eats are still fun to reminisce about. The note cards can be purchased individually (£2.75 per card) or as a pack of eight  for £12.50. Presentandcorrect.com.

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-- Caitlin Keller

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New for Spam lovers: Lip gloss

The smell of SPAM and the click that goes with opening that little royal blue can elicit the type of cult craze you'd expect to surround a performance by a favorite band. People profess their undying love, can't get enough and will buy any and all SPAM-related merchandise available.

Hormel, the maker of Spam, offers its fans a slew of products such as hats, air fresheners and even beach balls. But the official Hormel-licensed SPAM product that will have devotees licking their lips? Hands down, the SPAM lip glaze.

You no longer have to settle for expressing your passion with something traditional like a T-shirt. Spam enthusiasts can get closer than ever to their favorite processed meat product by smearing the taste of Spam on their lips anytime the craving hits. It might be a poor substitute for a piece of Spam musubi, but the lip gloss is definitely lower-cal.

The lip glaze contains coconut and mineral oil in addition to its Spam flavor.

The little blue tubes of SPAM lip glaze are available for purchase at ThinkGeek.com. 

--Jenn Harris
Twitter.com/Jenn_Harris_

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Photo: SPAM lip glaze and original SPAM can. Credit: www.thinkgeek.com

Pack or pick up a picnic this summer

Whether you’re heading to a concert at the Hollywood Bowl (or the Ford or the Greek…), a star-gazing party at the Griffith Observatory or out to one of Southern California’s many beaches, summer promises warmer, longer-lasting days and is reason enough to pack a picnic to enjoy the season-to-be-spent-outdoors.

And if you’re too busy to pack your own, there are plenty of local eateries happy to do it for you -- for a price, of course:

The Larder at Tavern: The shop offers many worldly (or locally, ahem) themed picnic boxes including “The Matador,” “The Brentwood,” “The All-American” and “The Young Frenchman.” The All-American picnic box comes with fried chicken with buttermilk dressing, an avocado, cilantro and lime corn salad, a watermelon salad with tomato, mint and feta, a baguette, a lemon shortbread bar for dessert and a Chardonnay wine pairing. Picnics are $28 per box. 11648 San Vicente Blvd., Brentwood, (310) 806-6466, tavernla.com.

Joan’s on Third: The picnic box at Joan’s is filled with a bounty of items from their picnic menu, available only during the summer months; entrees include the chicken Milanese, grilled maple rosemary chicken breast and poached salmon, salads, cheese and salami plates, desserts such as the rustic apple pie and mini lemon bundt cake. There are wine suggestions to go with it. 8350 West 3rd St., L.A., (323) 655-2285, joansonthird.com.

Porta Via: The Italian eatery packs a picnic box for Pasadena Symphony and POPS goers. Traditional picnic boxes are $16 per person and contain an orzo pasta salad with feta and spinach, one of their signature sandwiches, like the Fra Mani artisan salami and fresh mozzarella with balsamic reduction on a baguette, and a house-made cookie. 1 W. California Blvd., Pasadena, (626) 793-9000, portaviafoods.com.

Susan Feniger’s Street: For a different take on a picnic, there's Street’s Bento Box. Filled with dishes from around the world, the box includes a tasting of a Thai eggplant salad, a Japanese potato salad, an Egyptian macaroni kushary with lentil and rice, heirloom tomatoes with coarse salt and black garlic aioli, one entrée like the Syrian lamb meatballs or the Tunisian chicken skewers and a sweet such as bourbon chocolate cherry cookies. The Bento boxes are $25 per box. 742 N. Highland Ave., L.A., (323) 203-0500, eatatstreet.com.  

Clementine: This neighborhood bakery-café offers a Hollywood Bowl picnic (not exclusively for those going to the venue but you get the idea), available at the end of this week. Buy a picnic-in-a-box or build your own with items from their early summer menu. For a night outing, bring in a thermos and they’ll fill 'er up with hot chocolate or chai. 1751 Ensley Ave., L.A., (310) 552-1080, clementineonline.com.

Olive & Thyme: The recently opened Toluca Lake cafe offers old-fashioned wire picnic baskets filled with salads, sandwiches, charcuterie, cheese, wine and desserts. 4013 Riverside Drive, Toluca Lake, (818) 557-1560, oliveandthyme.com.

Julienne: “Le Pique-Nique” menu at Julienne boasts a long list of savory and sweet picnic eats. A few worthy mentions are the Southwest chicken tenders with a spicy apricot sauce and the petite terrine with crackers, a platter of assorted spreads, cheese, dried fruit and nuts to share and nibble on in between sips of one of the gourmet market's chilled summer wines. 2649 Mission St., San Marino, (626) 441-2299, juliennetogo.com.

Know of any other L.A. eateries making picnics-to-go this summer? Comment on this post and let us know!

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--Caitlin Keller

Top photo: Joan's on Third picnic. Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

Bottom photo: Susan Feniger's Street bento box. Credit: Lesley Balla

Canning It: Working under pressure

When most people think of canning, they think of boiling water canning; taking food that has been placed in jars and boiling it for a recommended amount of time to make it last.

When you make fruit jam or pickles that way, you have something to eat and perhaps some handsome gifts to give away. But there are limitations to what can be boiling water processed and you can’t really feed your family on jelly and pickles. This is where pressure canning comes in.

Pressure canners (which are different than pressure cookers) are huge industrial-looking pots that have clamps and gauges, weights and valves and 12-page instruction manuals that are downright intimidating.  But don’t let that stop you. It’s simpler thank you think. All you have to do is follow the directions.

Vote coming Tuesday on new grading system for food trucks

 
Los Angeles County supervisors are scheduled to vote Tuesday afternoon on a plan to expand the county's popular letter-grading system for restaurants to mobile food eateries. Read more here on L.A. Now:

Photo: Serving up organic fare at the Green Truck. Credit: Stefano Paltera / For The Times

'The Great Food Truck Race': Nom nom nom nom

There's just no stopping the Nom Nom Truck.

For the second week in a row, the Los Angeles-based Vietnamese sandwich truck -- specializing in banh mi sandwiches -- has cruised to easy victory in this competition pitting food trucks against each other as they travel the country and see who can raise the most money. The competitors can't use social media, but they can get wily. And that's just what the Nom Nom truck did as the herd headed to its latest pit stop in Santa Fe, N.M. The truck's operators wisely planted a story in the local media heralding their arrival. The result? Lines, lines everywhere.

In this week's "truck stop" challenge, host Tyler Florence told the contestants they had to send a teammate to buy local chiles -- this was, after all, Santa Fe -- and incorporate them into a special for the day. Noted chef Eric DiStefano, owner of the El Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, would go to each truck undercover and choose the best special of them all. The winner would get immunity.