Posted in cake, dessert, fruit, gluten free, tuesdays with dorie on Jun 23rd, 2009
I hear people say that they’re a member of Tuesdays with Dorie because it gets them baking recipes they wouldn’t normally choose for themselves. Usually, I think they’re referring to things that don’t necessarily sound good but then are surprisingly tasty, like the peanut butter chocolate chip oatmeal cookies were for me.
I would never have [...]
Posted in book review, gluten free, healthy, italian, salad, side dish, vegetables on Jun 18th, 2009
I used to read cookbooks like novels. I don’t require pictures, and I don’t like to skip around – I’ll be annoyed making the chocolate cake from Chapter 10 if I’m still reading through Chapter 2’s salads. It feels like a spoiler; like when I was sad to see Gandalf die in The [...]
Posted in custard, dessert, fruit, gluten free, summer, tuesdays with dorie on Jun 16th, 2009
It seems lately that ice cream isn’t really my thing. For one thing, it hurts my sensitive teeth. For another, when it comes to making desserts, I really want to use the mixer. And the oven. And butter and flour and leavening. The blender and the stove? Pbbth! That’s [...]
Posted in chocolate, dessert, favorites, fruit, pie, spring on Jun 12th, 2009
Those U-pick places tend to be better in theory than in practice for me. I do like knowing that my food is picked at its peak ripeness. It makes for some wonderfully sweet strawberries. On the other hand, ew, bugs. And thorns, and rotting berries that you can’t see under all [...]
Posted in fruit, gluten free, pork, spring on Jun 10th, 2009
For years, before I had a food blog, I primarily cooked Cooks Illustrated recipes. I did worry about whether I was relying on them too much and if I was creative enough, but because I was making great food and learning useful tricks, I didn’t think too much of it. The main problem [...]
Posted in dessert, french, fruit, pie, spring, tuesdays with dorie on Jun 9th, 2009
Once I started making an effort to eat seasonally, I realized that apples were my best bet for a large part of the year. By the end of winter, I’m impatient for strawberries to kick off the farmer’s market season. I try to avoid apples in the spring and summer, because it’s nice [...]
Posted in cake, dessert, fruit, recipe comparisons, spring on Jun 8th, 2009
I do not like oddball mixing methods. In fact, unless they’re explained, my habit is to ignore them completely. I know that muffins are sometimes mixed like cakes and that there are different types of cookies, but in general, I’m familiar with the normal mixing methods, and if something strays too far from [...]
Posted in french, gluten free, potatoes, side dish on Jun 5th, 2009
When I saw this recipe is a recent issue of Cooks Illustrated, it was immediately registered as “for special occasions only.” Seriously, I consider regular mashed potatoes fairly decadent, much less the cheese-laden variety. But then I managed to create a special occasion: Dave and I found a cheap, good bottle of Pinot [...]
Posted in Bread Baker's Apprentice, bread, breakfast, yeast bread on Jun 4th, 2009
I’ve always wanted to make this bread just because the shape of one of the variations is so cool. It’s a round loaf with strips of dough crossed over the top, the ends split and curled around.
I ended up not using that shape though. The bread is flavored with all sorts of things [...]
Posted in bread, breakfast, freezer friendly, fruit, quick bread, spring on Jun 3rd, 2009
Scones get a seriously bad rap. People think they’re bland, dense, and/or crumbly. People think you can only enjoy them if you have a mug of coffee or tea with them. Branny told me that her husband thinks they taste like chalk. And these people aren’t completely wrong – some scones [...]
