Hey folks! Just a plug to check out Zorra’s roundup of the Sugar High Friday entries — mine’s all the way at the bottom; it’s the saffrom rice pudding and it’s delicious! All the entries look mouthwatering — so go check’em out!
Have a great weekend!
In Italy, antipasti are meant to whet your appetite. (Granted, when I ate out in Italy, my appetite needs little whetting — what with all the whiffs of freshly-made pasta and roasted tomato sauce drifting from the kitchen to my table.) Nonetheless, in Italy, antipasti are simply appetizers, mere preludes to the main dish. In my house, they’re just part of the meal. After all, roasted vegetables with a splash of quality balsamic vinegar and just the right amount of good olive oil make a perfect accompaniment to whatever’s being served. In my humble opinion, they need not precede the main course — in fact, they do just fine right alongside it. [click to continue…]
You know it’s holiday time when this is your kitchen table display…
Happy Holidays to all, and enjoy the winter season!
In honor of the holiday season, Daring Bakers’ took on what may be the holy grail of daring recipes: Buche de Noel, or Yule Log. Until Lis and Ivonne charged DBers with making this, I didn’t even know it was a food. See, traditionally, the Yule Log was a large, thick piece of wood burned by Pagans just after winter solstice (which was on Friday), in order to thank their gods for making the days longer and the weather warmer in the months to come. Today, not many people burn Yule Logs, but apparently, loads of people eat them around Christmastime.
Now I’m not one to balk when the going gets tough — but that doesn’t mean I won’t bring in reinforcements. Fortunately for me, my dear friend Dellie was visiting from Boston, so we devoted a few hours one night last week to this undertaking. Boy was I wise — both to set aside lots of time and to enlist a cooking compatriot: Buche is quite the project! [click to continue…]
With candy canes and sprinkles lining grocery store shelves, holiday season just screams, “sugar cookies!” Around this time each year, I toss aside my fanciest dessert recipes and opt for the more humble sugar cookie instead. Sugar cookies can be enhanced any which way, from flavoring the dough to adding crushed candy to topping with sprinkles and frosting….with so many variations, there’s truly a sugar cookie for everyone.
I made sugar cookies twice this season, both times differently than I have before. When Jackie hosted a cookie-making-and-decorating party (a blast, as you may have guessed), I was introduced to the wonder that is maple extract. It’s not the easiest to find, but I’ll be keeping it close for those times when I’m craving maple flavor, but adding maple syrup would change the texture. Apparently 5 lbs. of cookie dough and lots of intermittent nibbling wasn’t enough for me, so I decided to make another batch at home. For those, I used vanilla extract and just a bit of molasses, which imparted an earthy flavor to otherwise regular sugar cookies. I highly recommend these recipes, and I’ve included both of them below. [click to continue…]
It’s already December and I still haven’t posted a freezable soup recipe? Can’t be.
My nose is red and my paws are frosty these days. If only it were possible to have the kettle whistling by the time I walked in the door, so that I could instantly hold a piping hot mug of chai after weathering the cold. Until someone invents that kettle, there’s frozen soup. There’re few things easier than popping a soup-filled ziploc out of the freezer and nuking your dinner on a cold winter night. Start to finish, it only takes 4 minutes, and the results are just as good, if not better, than freshly made soup. The ingredients have had time to mingle with each other a bit more, so frozen soups often taste flavor-saturated than their fresh siblings. Top the soup with some homemade croutons and you’re good to go! [click to continue…]
D. had some law school buddies over this weekend for a study marathon, and I thought it only fair that if D. study her butt off, I cook my butt off. So I started brainstorming ideas for brunch food that could be served room temp (since I’d already be gone by the time they came over, and D’s not much in the way of kitchen activities that aren’t dish-washing.) I settled on a frittata and apricot-couronne — a hole-in-one, if you ask me. [click to continue…]
It’s that merry time of year again! Being Jewish, I get that Christmas isn’t my holiday, but I can’t help anxiously awaiting It’s a Wonderful Life and the SNL Christmas special and Harry Connick, Jr. on the radio. It makes me so happy!
Ok, I suppose it’s much easier to revel in the merriment of the season since I don’t have 1001 Christmas gifts to buy. But for the rest of you, if you’re looking for that perfect foodie-gift, I have two excellent suggestions. Both landed on my shelf by way of Hannukah (thanks, Ima!) and I couldn’t be happier.
1) Pictured above is Nigella’s new cookbook, Nigella Express. If you love Nigella (which we most certainly do), you’ll love this larger, just-as-beautiful cookbook of recipes that can be made in a flash. If you’ve never opened a Nigella cookbook, now’s the perfect time to start. Her photographers are amazingly talented, and everything looks mouthwateringly delicious.
2) This one is a must-have. I heard an interview with Judith Jones on the latest episode of The Splendid Table (a public radio food podcast), and she’s an absolute delight. Jones grew up in the days of ladylike behavior and stockings draped over the bedside…but she was in Paris, living with a man (yes! a man!) whom she later married, discovering all that is wonderful about French food-life. Jones had a sixth sense about chef-authors; she has “discovered” trailblazers such as Julia Child, Madhur Jaffrey and Claudia Rodin, and she was the editor of Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. She’s now a VP editor at Knopf, and her story is worth hearing, or reading about, in full. Best of all, this book is less than fifteen bucks! Make someone happy without breaking the bank, will ya?