Queenie's Treasury: The caffeinated edition.

Happy weekend, my doves! I've been on something of a Treasury hiatus for a while, for which I heartily apologize. Between the trip to Maine and my brother's actual 30th birthday last week (gougères, chocolate chip cookies, and Vietnamese lettuce wraps for 100 were involved), it's been a bit nutty on this end. But I'm back, baby, and ready to rock. This week, we're all about coffee.

First up, some great tips from the wonderful women of Food52 (assisted by the folks from Craft Coffee) on how to brew the perfect cup. Some highlights? Store coffee at room temperature, not in the freezer or refrigerator. Grind the beans fresh, preferably with a burr grinder. And make sure the water you use is actually below boiling - otherwise you're going to get a bitter brew.

But, kids - it is, after all, summer. Which means that cold coffee is at least as important right now as the hot kind. Thank goodness, then, for Bon Appétit's no-nonsense recipe for cold-brewed coffee concentrate. Keep a mason jar of this in your fridge, and you'll never find yourself settling for Starbucks again. (My favorite beans for cold coffee, by the way, are Brazil Rainha from Joe.)

And, finally, a little something to help you brew your best on the go. I'm a sucker for Intelligentsia's iPhone app, which contains step by step instructions for a variety of brewing methods - extremely helpful during the summer travel season, when you find yourself confronted with a variety of unfamiliar coffee makers in varying locales. (A rental vacation home in Maine, for example.)

Queenie's Treasury

Happy weekend, everyone! It's a glorious spring morning here in New York - it's only 9 AM, and I've already paid visits to the Union Square Greenmarket and Fairway. After all, I have a ramps-themed dinner party to get off the ground in the next eleven and a half hours. While I enjoy my coffee, let's talk Treasury.

First up, this adorable, personalized iPad case by Etsy seller Pretty Smitten. I love the graphic patterns and the monograms, and am thinking one of these might be just the thing to jazz up my new iPad. And, come to think of it, my Kindle case is looking a bit shabby...

I break far too many glasses to justify investing in these, but aren't these Mark Blackwell highballs absolutely to die for? The gold-dipped base is swoon-worthy, and I can't imagine a more elegant item to class up a bar cart.

I'm off to cook up a storm - the rest of you (if you're in New York) should get outside and enjoy this unreal sunshine!

Queenie's Treasury

Hello, my lovelies. It's been a crazy week chez Queenie; consequently, I've been very, very neglectful of you all. I'm so sorry, but I do promise some lovely posts this week! In the meantime (while I type furiously away), here are some Treasury goodies to keep you occupied!

First up, an adorable (and useful) new kitchen conversions poster by the lovely and talented Jenna Park of Sweet Fine Day. I'm constantly reminding myself (via Google, usually) of how many cups are in a quart, teaspoons in a tablespoon, and so on. And now here's Jenna to solve the problem - and in such a gorgeous way! I predict that this will make its way into many of my friends' Christmas stockings this year.

This is a skin that makes your iPhone4 look like a Leica camera. I want one. Badly. That is all.

Everything in Claudia Varosio's Etsy shop is fantastic. I love her movie posters, and I love her song lyric prints. But my absolute favorite has to be this Edie Beale paper doll set. (If you're not familiar with Little Edie, now's the time to stream Grey Gardens to your computer. Like, right now.) Her iconic style is captured so perfectly in this format, and I can't help falling in love with her quirkiness all over again.

Can I get you something?

Ah, the iconic question. The question everyone on Mad Men (except for Freddie, that is) seems very used to answering in the affirmative. And so, in tribute to Mad Men's season 4 finale, which airs tonight, here are a few choice cocktails to get you going.

60th and 1st, 25 July, 2:00 PM.

Is anyone else addicted to Hipstamatic? Because I am.

Momofuku fried chicken dinner, or: we almost finished the whole thing, except not really.

A few weeks ago, word came down from on high that Momofuku Noodle Bar would be offering a fried chicken dinner for $100 via their online reservations system. Obviously, I signed up immediately. I knew my brother, Jeremy, would be as excited as I was, and he and my sister-in-law Miriam agreed to join me. We still had two spots open in our reservation, so I consulted the Twitterverse. Sure enough, the lovely and freshly-married Kathryn Yu (who also photographed the meal) volunteered to join us, and to bring her husband Dan along for the fun.

Our motley crew met up at Momofuku Noodle at eight o'clock last Thursday. We were the second fried chicken dinner of the night; the restaurant does three (6 PM, 8 PM and 10 PM). The night got off to a serendipitous start when we found out that our waiter was none other than Eric Murdoch, who'd performed as an actor for the first play Jeremy produced here in Manhattan. Eric got us going with a round of the restaurant's justly famous alcoholic slushies (these were watermelon spiked with soju, a Korean rice wine).

Eric told us the chicken would take about 20 minutes to cook, so we decided to kill time by ordering a couple of appetizers. We ordered the pork buns, the heirloom tomato salad with melon and the corn with fingerling potatoes.

All were fantastic, though the tomatoes and pork buns outshone the corn a bit. The pork buns, which are the same ones you find over at Momofuku Ssam Bar, are just flat-out insane. Fluffy and chewy and filled with pork belly and lightly pickled cucumbers, they're just ridiculously good. The tomato salad was really interesting; I was surprised at how well the sweetness of the melon complimented the tomatoes instead of competing with them, and the smoky saltiness of the ham crisp brought the whole thing safely back to porky Momofuku land.

The chef sent out a special treat: seared scallops with corn and chili oil. These were delicious as well; we couldn't quite suss out what seasoning had made its way onto the scallops, but it was something truly yummy. The scallops themselves were large, but still tender and moist. And who doesn't love corn?

And then, finally, the main event. A giant - and I do mean giant - platter of chicken was set down on the table, along with a stack of moo shu pancakes and a bowl of gorgeous herbs and veggies, including radishes, carrots, shisito peppers, opal basil, thai basil, mint, bibb lettuce and shiso leaves. Next came a flight of four sauces: hoisin, jalapeño-garlic, bibim, and ginger-scallion.

There were two kinds of chicken: half of the meat was dipped in buttermilk and seasoned with Old Bay, while the other half was cooked Korean-style, triple-fried and basted with bibim sauce and vinegar.

The idea is that you take a little of everything - the veggies, the herbs, the lettuce and, of course, the chicken, fold it up in a pancake, add some sauce to your liking, and eat the whole thing. After a few minutes of tearing into the chicken with our bare hands, it became clear why the restaurant had covered the table in a sheet of butcher's paper. We left grease stains everywhere, evidence of how thoroughly we enjoyed ourselves.

Overall, our group preferred the Korean chicken to the buttermilk; the meat seemed a bit more tender and well-seasoned, whereas the Old Bay seasoning was confined to the crust of the buttermilk chicken. That said, we enjoyed both offerings and tried to divide our attention as evenly as possible. We didn't want any chicken to feel bad about itself.

We were divided on the topic of the sauces; I was partial to the bibim sauce spiced up with a dash of Sriracha, while Jeremy favored the jalapeño-garlic mixed with the hoisin. Obviously, though, there was something for everyone. The only thing I would do differently? Order a pot of the house pickles to go with everything.

Despite Eric cheering us on, the five of us were not up to the task of eating every last bit. Though I'm sure they were ever-so-slightly disappointed in us, the staff did a crack job of boxing everything up (in three containers) for us to take home and enjoy cold from the fridge.

All of these gorgeous photos were snapped by the very talented Kathryn Yu. You can find more of her work at KathrynYu.com.

NYC Tweetup: "Julie & Julia" Take Manhattan.

That's right, folks! I'm hosting my first tweetup - and I'm hoping you'll come along for the fun.

On Saturday, August 8th, I'll be hosting a tweetup at an opening-weekend showing of the upcoming film Julie & Julia, a Nora Ephron adaption of two memoirs: Julie Powell's Julie & Julia and Julia Child's (effervescent, inspiring, transcendent) My Life in France.

So head on over the event web page (clickety) to RSVP. And if you're one of those happy-go-lucky types who don't like to plan too far ahead, don't worry - I'll be reminding you closer to the date, you can be sure of that.

In the meantime, do yourself a (huge) favor and read Julia Child's amazing memoir. And then watch the trailer. And then...cry.

See you there!

Two loves, united.

As you all know by now, I love France. This love started as a sort of pining, probably around the time I started taking after-school French lessons in the first grade. In those lessons, we learned, among other things, to count to ten by memorizing stories. For example, for un, deux, trois, quatre, cinq, we learned the following story:

"One day, a cat wanted to cross a river, but didn't think it could swim across. A snake named Trois, resting in the branches of a tree on the opposite bank of the river, convinced the cat it could swim across easily. The cat believed Trois, began to swim, and sank. Repeat after me: Under Trois, Cat sank."

Lovely, non?

And yet, despite this gory tale, my love of France and the French language persisted and flourishes to this day, fueled in part by an ever-growing love of French cuisine. It's only natural, then, that the food-based French idioms Clotilde Dusoulier shares on Chocolate & Zucchini each week have me entranced. They combine a few of my favorite things. A few choice phrases:

"Aller à quelqu'un comme un tablier à une vache." Literally, "like an apron suits a cow," it's used to describe something that is bizarre or simply unbecoming on a person.

"Le ver est dans le fruit." Literally, "the worm is in the fruit," it means "the damage is already done," but it's so much more poetic.

Go check out the whole list, and let me know which ones are your favorites!

Cinnamon buns, two ways.

A couple of weekend ago, I set myself a challenge: make a whole hell of a lot of cinnamon buns.

Cinnamon buns are one of my favorite things of all time, but I'd never, ever made them at home before. I had no idea where to start (an internet search for recipes yielded, as you can imagine, an overwhelming number of options), and so I consulted my new go-to: my tweeps.

They came through with two very different recipes: one a quick-rising, buttermilk-based, biscuity version, and one a more traditional yeasted bun, with nuts and a caramel topping. Both are delicious, but different enough to satisfy two very different kinds of cravings. (Click the link for the buttermilk recipe; see below for the for yeast-risen recipe.)

The buttermilk biscuit version is chewy, slightly salty, and tangy from the buttermilk and cream cheese topping. The yeasted version is lighter in texture and has a deep, caramel flavor, made even richer by the addition of nuts to the filling. It also makes about three times as many rolls, so be prepared to either freeze your leftovers (they keep well for a few weeks) or invite over an army of friends to eat them while they're hot.

No matter which you choose (or if you make both), make sure to roll the filling tightly into the dough, something key to an evenly-baked, moist bun. And, of course, you must enjoy at least one bun with a cup of coffee - there really is nothing better than that.


Katie's Cinnamon Nut Buns
Makes approximately 24 buns

For the rolls:
1/4 cup warm water (about 110-115 degrees)
2 packets (1/4 ounce) active dry yeast
1 1/2 cups warm whole milk (110-115 degrees)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
1/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 tsp. salt
3 large eggs
6 cups all-purpose flour (plus more for work surface)

For the filling:
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2/3 cup pecans
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
A pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

For the glaze:
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
6 tbsp. unsalted butter
2 tbsp. water

Sprinkle yeast on water in small bowl, let stand until foamy (5-10 min.).

Butter two 13x9 (or three 9x9) baking pans; set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together milk, butter, salt, sugar, and eggs. Add yeast mixture. Using a wooden spoon, stir in 6 cups flour, until you have a soft, shaggy dough (if needed add more flour).

Turn dough out onto a floured work surface; knead until smooth (5 to 10 min.) Butter the inside of a large bowl; place dough in bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm spot until dough has doubled in size, at least one hour.

Place all of the filling ingredients - except for the butter - in the bowl of a food processor fitted with the blade attachment. Pulse until coarsely ground; set nut mixture aside.

Divide the risen dough in half (keep the other half covered). On a flour-dusted surface, roll dough out into a rectangle about 16 inches by 10 inches. Spread 4 tablespoons of the butter over dough, leaving about 1/2-inch border all around.

Sprinkle half the nut mixture over butter. Leave a border around the filling so it doesn't spill over. 
 Roll the dough tightly, crosswise, like a jelly roll. Once you've finished rolling, use a sharp knife to cut the log crosswise into 12 equal pieces.

Place buns, cut side down, in the prepared pans. Cover pans loosely with plastic wrap and let stand in a warm spot until doubled in size (about an hour).

Place the oven racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat to 375°F. Bake buns until golden brown (25 to 30 minutes), rotating pans back-to-front and top-to-bottom halfway through.

Remove pans from the oven and let cool in pans, on racks, for fifteen minutes. Meanwhile, prepare the glaze:

In a small saucepan set over medium heat, mix the brown sugar, butter and water, stirring gently until the mixture comes to a simmer. Cook one minute more, then drizzle the glaze over the cooled buns. Let stand 10 more minutes before serving.

Buns keep well, cooled completely and then frozen in plastic bags, for up to four weeks. Thaw overnight and warm gently in the oven before serving.

Many, many thanks to @lostplum and @KathrynYu for the awesome recipes!

I'm a nerd, and a sucker for detail.

My latest obsession, as many of you may already know, is Battlestar Galactica. I only got "real" cable (as opposed to randomly-there-when-you-plug-into-the-wall-NYC cable) last year, so I wasn't able to watch the SciFi Channel's re-imagining of the seventies miniseries from the beginning. Since people have been raving about it to me for years, I decided the right and proper thing to do would be to wait till I had time (read: till my shows were off the air for the summer) and watch the entire series on DVD.

Well, I just finished season 2, and I'm in love.

For those who don't know, Battlestar Galactica (BSG, to those of us nerdy enough to tweet about it on a regular basis) chronicles the struggles of a group of 50,000 human survivors of a massive holocaust of their 12 colonies. They've been wiped out by the Cylons, a race of machines originally created by humans to help out around the house (and the factories and airports, one imagines). This group of 50,000 are a society in unexpected exile; things are decidedly low-tech, as far as space travel with gravity goes.

One nifty manifestation of the series' analog sensibility is the ubiquity of the mason jar as drinking cup and all-around handy vessel. I noticed the mason jars about halfway through season one, and it was one of the tiny little touches sprinkled throughout that demonstrate the show's incredible attention to detail.

After all, mason jars were created for canning; it represents our terrestrial connections, our link to the rhythm of the seasons and the need to preserve them throughout the year. They are decidedly low-tech and old-fashioned, and yet the space-faring vessels depicted in BSG all seem to have them in spades. (The image above is of an actual prop from the show.)

Highly practical, as they're darn useful, and hold a generous helping of ambrosia.

Photo of the mason jar courtesy of www.aarondouglasfans.com.

Strawberries have landed!

In other news, I love Twitter. Thanks for the update, @maggiejane!

Flowers, flowers, everywhere!

I've gone a little poladroid-crazy lately, but, when there are so many gorgeous flowers to look at - can you blame me? Lilacs have been bountiful at the market for weeks now, and last Saturday brought the first of my absolute favorite - peonies - as well as some sweet little buttercups.

Happy spring!

Ruth Reichl and Mark Bittman are my tweeps.

By now, even the less technology-savvy among us have heard of Twitter, the micro-blogging, social networking phenomenon currently sweeping the interwebs. When I joined Twitter back in November, my goal was to connect with experts and mavens in my new field (user experience) and possibly rustle up some new Queenie readers.

Little did I know my dabblings in the Twitterverse would soon become a full-blown obsession, on par with the great Facebook addiction of 2007.

The latest development to fuel my passion was my discovery that several of my food world idols are Twittering - Ruth Reichl, Mark Bittman, Pete Wells, Amanda Hesser, Grant Achatz, Adam Roberts.

While I do think there's only so much value to be shared via Twitter's 140 characters per update, there's no denying that it's kinda cool to know when Ruth Reichl is working on a new project, or to recommend the Bar at Etats-Unis to the Amateur Gourmet.

Want to join the fun? Come follow me - you can find me @queenie_nyc. See you on Twitter!

Out with the old, in with the new.

Yesterday evening I decided it was time to refresh my work laptop's background. The European travel background (below) served me well for about three months, but it's time for something a bit lighter.

Enter a collage of Poladroided Greenmarket photos from 2008. Yay!

Want to make your own collage? I did these using Picasa, Google's photo editing software. The latest version has a collage feature - you can do grids, mosaics, picture piles, and the like. Oodles of time-wasting potential.

Paris in Poladroid.

My new toy makes stuff look old.

Feeling nostalgic? Check out the Poladroid project. This free software turns your digital photos into sentimental Polaroid-esque images. SO fun and addictive.

Many thanks to stylish, inspiring blogger Katy Elliott for the heads-up on this one. After all, who needs to go do laundry when I could just sit here and play with this all day long?

Geeking out.

So, how cool is this? One of my colleagues pointed the whole group to this nifty little tool today, and I just had to share. Type in your blog URL, or paste in a bunch of text, and you get this cool word cloud.

So addictive, so fun, and so revealing: I am clearly in love with sprouts.