Every so often we come across some interesting stuff on the internet and feel compelled to share. This week has been a good one for procrastinating while surfing the net...
Every summer for practically forever my family has rented a house on the beach in Rhode Island for a week in August. Among the many culinary delights available there is one of my favorite things, Rhode Island clear chowder. It is exactly what it sounds like, a clear soup, briny and redolent of the sea, studded with clams and potatoes. It's not something I've found in any other state and so I make sure to get my fix whenever I'm in the vicinity. Apparently I'm not the only one who loves it, over at Leite's Culinaria there's a recipe for this regional specialty.
Fresh cheeses are another favorite. Making them at home is easy and very rewarding. Tartelette has a beautiful write up of making Petit Suisse in tandem with Canelle et Vanille, another wonderful, dessert oriented blog.
This week I stumbled across Straight from the Farm and discovered 17 random fact about honeybees. This completed a theme as I had just finished reading about bees in Gourmet magazine. The loss of the honeybees to colony collapse disorder seems to be a clear warning sign that all is not right with the world. The idea that bees are succumbing to an illness that bears a disturbing resemblance to AIDS in humans is a sobering one.
Last but not least, over on The Chocolate Life you can check out some very cool silicone molds, ostensibly for chocolate but really useful for whatever else your imagination can dream up as well.
*Last minute addition, there's an amazing post over at Jaden's Steamy Kitchen on how to make Xiao Long Biao, steamed soup dumplings. It will make you want to run right into your kitchen, or at least to your nearest dim sum fix.
