Month: February 2011

Anandama Bread: 33 % whole wheat, 100 % comfort.

I’m covered in flour and the entire house smells like warm bread.  A good day by all standards. With slender baguette pans, gurgling jars of sourdough starter, and an array of silky flours, my father was a talented bread baker.  One of his specialties, the one I hold dearest, was Anadama Bread.  As a kid,… Continue reading Anandama Bread: 33 % whole wheat, 100 % comfort.

Homemade Infused Vodka and Spirits

The flavored vodka market appears to have exploded in the past few years.  On a recent trip to the spirits shop, there were shelves upon shelves of vodkas in all imaginable flavors.  Whipped cream, bacon, and sweet tea were new ones that caught my eye, but not quite my wallet. Infusing alcohols is an ancient… Continue reading Homemade Infused Vodka and Spirits

Blog-y’s first birthday!

My mother and grandmother, 1951. Just a year ago today I published my first blog post.  There have been a bunch of changes over the year (including the name and url), but I am so thrilled where I have landed and am so excited for all that is ahead. In the past twelve months I’ve… Continue reading Blog-y’s first birthday!

Blood Orange and Clementine Galette

Soon after I finished culinary school a wise and wonderful chef and cookbook author asked me, as I was first meeting her, what kind of food do you cook? I was a little stumped.  I was just out of a year of cooking little other than classical french cuisine.  And a year of cooking predetermined recipes… Continue reading Blood Orange and Clementine Galette

Ready for Spring.

Fernando, who turned two on Valentine’s Day, anxiously awaiting some signs of grass out in the pasture.

Technique Tuesday: How to Supreme Citrus

As committed to a locavore diet as I am, for sanity’s sake, a little citrus is a welcome addition at this seemingly endless point in the winter season.  Lemons, oranges, limes, tangerines and just recently, blood oranges, have made their way into salads, dressings, marinades and desserts, and brought some desperately needed sunshine to my… Continue reading Technique Tuesday: How to Supreme Citrus

Breakfast for your Valentine

I remember the first year freshdirect.com was operating they offered a somewhat genius valentine’s day package.  It was something along the lines of ready-to-cook surf and turf, fixings for chocolate fondue, a bottle of bubbly, and then parbaked croissants and orange juice for breakfast the next morning.  One click, and you look like an exceedingly… Continue reading Breakfast for your Valentine

Chocolate week continues.

I was combing through my files and came across this incredibly decadent recipe for  Dark Chocolate Dipped Shortbread that I posted just about a year ago. I wouldn’t turn down a batch of these from my valentine.  Perhaps housed in this box. ♥

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Categorized as Sweets

Bittersweet Chocolate Souffle

This little love letter in a ramekin is the perfect way to say “I love you enough to learn what stiff peaks are” on Valentine’s Day. And in actuality, the ratio of difficulty to wow-factor is absolutely in your favor.  Have you had a chocolate souffle?  Have you made your own chocolate souffle?  Have you… Continue reading Bittersweet Chocolate Souffle

Scallion Pancakes

Scallion pancakes.  Oh how I love thee. These remarkable, little chewy, salty, scallion-y, layered disks of oily crunchy heaven completely stole my heart when I first had them my first year living in the city a decade and a half ago.  Often I would grab a late night snack of scallion pancakes and dumplings on… Continue reading Scallion Pancakes

My Favorite Chinese Cookbooks

my station at the Cloud 9 Cooking School in Yangshuo, China. The Chinese New Year, the Year of the Rabbit, begins its fifteen day celebration this Thursday, February 3rd.  In observance, I’ll be cooking lots of chinese dishes this week–many of which I learned during my three-week honeymoon in China three years ago. But to… Continue reading My Favorite Chinese Cookbooks