Brown and Green Cutting Board Photos by Mikel Wijayasuriya of Finjay Studio

These are just a few of the amazing images our friend Mikel took of our cutting boards. Check out the full photo shoot and her other work at www.finjay.com

Blogging Breakfast

Ok, its not that common that people are blogging breakfast but we thought you might find it amusing.

A crossaint, a thickly sliced tomato, an egg and some feta. In a nonstick, on low heat, start an egg with some freshly cracked pepper (and some paprika doesn't hurt either). Let that cook until it is over easy then sprinkle some kosher salt over it. Throw a tomato into the pan as you take the egg off. Sprinkle some thyme over this. Crack some pepper. Let is cook for a second. Toast your crossaint, lay it on a plate, sprinkle with some feta and top with the egg and then the tomato. If you had some thinly sliced basil you could probably top it. This would be good. Bon appetit, or rather- good morning.

Pizza-Pizza

Some of the best food in the world has to be homemade pizzas. Get a good pizza stone, heat that thing up, roll out your favorite dough and get on it. The classic margarita is a good place to start. You need mozzarella, a good homemade red sauce and a bunch of basil. A great homemade pizza dough is here (a big thanks goes to Mr. Batali for this one):

Ingredients

· 1/ 4 cup light red or white wine, Fiano di Avellino (or really whatever you have on hand is ok)

· 3/ 4 cup warm water

· 2 1 tsp of active dry yeast

· 1 1 tablespoon honey

· 1 1 teaspoon salt

· 1 1 tablespoon plus 1 tablespoon olive oil

· 3 1/2 cups flour

Directions

Place wine, water and yeast in a large bowl and stir until dissolved. Add the honey, salt and 1 tablespoon olive oil and mix well to combine. Add 1 cup of the flour and mix with a wooden spoon until it becomes a loose batter. Add 2 more cups of the flour and stir for 2 to 3 minutes, incorporating as much flour as you can with the wooden spoon.

Bring the dough together by hand and turn out onto a floured board or marble surface. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes, until dough is smooth and firm. Place in a clean, lightly-oiled bowl, using remaining tablespoon of oil and cover with a towel. Let rise in the warmest part of the kitchen for 45 minutes.

For individual pizzas or calzones, cut the dough into 4 equal pieces and knead into rounds. For one large pizza, knead into 1 large round. For either, let rest for 15 minutes.

Grab some good wine and some good friends and get into this. A good simple Romaine salad with razor thin onions and a homemade balsamic make a perfect friend.

Barbeque Season

OK folks,

Lately been cooking some barbecue chicken that is outstanding and i am going to tell you how you go about this stuff right here. Ready? OK. Here we go.

Get the grill started to medium heat (350 degrees). You will want to get one burner rolling and the other off. All the chicken should be cooked over INDIRECT heat. Do not dredge the ckick'n until you are ready to kick off on the grill. The rub will get soggy if you do before hand:

Chicken drumsticks with skin on, trim fat

A good amount of yellow mustard or any mustard you have on hand

Mix up 1/4-1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1 tbl paprika, .75 tbl cayenne, some pepper, maybe some coriander (don't add salt). Mix on a broad plate. Be liberal with the spices.

Wash and pat dry chicken. Dip chicken into mustard, rubbing it on with your hands, under the skin, etc. Dredge across the plate through the rub. Go directly (or almost directly) to the grill with these, cooking, over indirect heat source for approx 30 minutes. Check it and see how you are doing. Should be just about perfectly glazed and ready to go at 30 minutes.

Enjoy. Potato salad, mac and cheese, cornbread, orzo, whatever, is good with this. Some grilled corn with maple syrup and saffron basted on it could also be a good accompaniment.

Pepper Place Farmer's Market

We had a great time this past weekend at the Market. It was great to meet everyone who stopped by the booth. Come see us again soon! We'll be publishing our cutting board care instructions soon.

Cutting Boards!

End grain cutting boards have been used by people who cook for centuries. They are an optimal cutting surface as they are easy on knife blades, process bacteria naturally, and are self healing (knives do not sever the wood fibers of end grain cutting boards as they do with long grain cutting boards). This is our take on that classic "go to" product:

Beginning

Almost weekly we spend time selecting the wood stock we use to make our cutting surfaces. We pay particular attention to the natural characteristics, tones and unique patterns of the wood. This attention to detail provides a level of quality control that sets our cutting surfaces apart from the typical mainstream product. Here we prepare two 8" x 2" walnut boards for glue up (the glue is FDA approved) as we help them on their journey to a countertop somewhere.

An Idea

We formed Brown and Green with the idea that it is to be an epicurean/culinary culture focused product company that is committed to environmental sustainability, the use of materials which continue to grow with you as you "season"' them with your own life, and craftsmanship. Our focus is on the things we love the most: cooking, eating, drinking, and design. Our design goal is to identify specific improvements and variations that can be made to the classic products that are often found in kitchens and dining rooms, redesign using a common sense approach, and then fabricate the objects in our shop. We are specifically against mass production, due to a shared idea that there is already enough "design junk" in the world today. We were sure other cooks and eaters would appreciate the regional approach to materials and the straightforward functionality we imagined for these products.

This blog is a collection of construction processes and food experiences which constantly feed our creative visions for solid, well crafted products that we would want in our own homes. We are proud to offer our products to you.