Posted in alcohol, beef, gluten free, grilling on Sep 4th, 2010
Generally, I’m not a fan of making marinades. I enjoy the flavor, but something about chopping and measuring ingredients just to put them in a bag with some meat for a few hours isn’t satisfying for me. I like the part of cooking that involves heat, when things get soft or crisp, turn golden brown, [...]
Posted in alcohol, cheese, favorites, freezer friendly, good as leftovers, italian, pasta, vegetables, vegetarian, weeknight meal on Aug 19th, 2010
People keep asking me how my recent vacation was, and I can’t think of any response other “so, so good.” How else do you sum up a week of playing in the waves, drinking margaritas, snorkeling, baking cookies, swimming with sea lions, watching shooting stars, eating shrimp tacos, and just basically everything that is good. [...]
I need to stop doing things like making a complicated braided loaf of bread just to cut it up and put in a casserole. Especially considering that Deb specifically calls for supermarket bread, clarifying that there is no need for super fancy stuff. No! Everything must be fancy! This is why I have no time [...]
Posted in alcohol, cake, dessert, tuesdays with dorie on Jul 20th, 2010
Dorie calls this a cake, and I was determined to make it a cake and not bread. I baked it in a flat square with the intention of cutting the square in half to make a layered rectangular cake filled with frosting. Much later I realized that I’d confused the issue by forming a perfectly [...]
Posted in alcohol, cake, dessert, tuesdays with dorie on Jun 29th, 2010
Someone brought a rum bundt cake into work last week, and oh my god, was it good. Tender, extremely moist, and intensely rummy, I could hardly resist grabbing one wedge after another. My officemate, who apparently has far better self-control than I, cut herself a piece and set it aside until the end of the [...]
Why should food be the only thing I think I can make better than most restaurants? Let’s move on to cocktails! Vodka gimlets are a good, basic drink, and they’ve come in handy for me a number of times – at a wedding with a terrible wine selection, at another wedding with inexperienced bartenders (“…a [...]
Posted in alcohol, freezer friendly, gluten free, good as leftovers, lamb, winter/holidays on Jan 7th, 2010
Whenever I eat lamb, my first whiff of it always seems a little…off. Is lamb like feety cheese – stinky, but in a good way? Or am I just attuned to beef, and I’m surprised when the lamb smells different? Whatever, I’ve decided that I officially like lamb. Stinky or not. This stew is not [...]
Posted in alcohol, cake, dessert, favorites, recipe comparisons on Dec 9th, 2009
Sometimes it’s the recipes that seem the simplest that can give us the most trouble. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard people lamenting about their chocolate chip cookies. We think that because the recipe is ubiquitous that we should all do it well, but truthfully, many cookies are finicky – if your [...]
Posted in alcohol, bread, breakfast, freezer friendly, fruit, tuesdays with dorie, yeast bread on Dec 4th, 2009
I’m very comfortable cutting recipes in half. Some people say that they don’t like to deal with the math, but I come from a family of three engineers and a math teacher, so I can handle math. Plus, I’m cooking for just two people now, and I lived alone for six years before that, so [...]
Posted in alcohol, custard, dessert, fruit, nuts, pie, tuesdays with dorie, winter/holidays on Dec 1st, 2009
I’m not really good with pears. I don’t know much about them, so I never buy them. And, of course, because I never buy them, I don’t learn much about them. Which types are best for baking and for eating? When are they in season? How do I know when they’re ripe? How long do [...]
