it occurred to me that there are phrases that make recipes sound better to me (or to other people). for example, i always am attracted to recipes that include the word “icebox” in their titles: i get an image of a white refrigerator a la […]
the day before i had my last paper due, i decided i needed a break, and sent myself off to miriam’s and josh’s pre-hannukah party with the bottle of champagne that lauren dropped off. said bottle of champagne, incidentally, went to toast the impending end […]
one could not possibly call this trifle a “fall trifle;” it requires the british-accent, hunting-dogs-and-trumpets air that “autumn” lends to the phrase. specifically, this is an autumn trifle with roasted apples and pears, and a pumpkin-caramel sauce. carrien sent me the recipe a while back when we had just gotten apples and pears in our organic foodbox, and as we still had them, and i finally wasn’t closeted in studio, it got made. it was a relief to cook again, and wonderful to use my santoku. i’m afraid i’ve been neglecting my wusthof chef’s knife in favor of the wonderful balance of my santoku. the wusthof is great for heavy-duty work, but i haven’t had to do any lately. and the santoku just cuts through things as if they’re butter. it’s simply amazing. have i mentioned that i love my santoku? i really believe that i own the most beautiful knives in the world. or, at least, in the world of people i know. i bow down in awe of my knives. and hope that i won’t cut myself with them, as i am wont to do from forgetting that i own sharp knives. no testing the edge on my finger for these babies.
we started off the evening coercing miriam and v to abandon their plans to go to grendel’s, and come over to cook with us as we had food to cook – an unnaturally large “jewel yam” (more plump than anything else) and cauliflower. i had seen a disgustingly beautiful (if that makes any sense) photograph of a cauliflower gratin in my bouchon cookbook, and jumped at the opportunity to make something from it for the first time. (more…)
my fellow bat-cave (we call it the bat cave because we don’t turn the lights on) denizens are out at various meetings, so i’m playing music on my computer right now (k’s choice). music aside, i finally got paid at work, so i finally have […]
after having swallowed too many bites of those awful carmel ice cream cakes, my sister and i began making our grandmother’s birthday cake every year. for the past four years or so, we’ve made variations on the same cake for her birthday, which falls on […]
it has been three years and still jessica won’t divulge the secret of her wonderful christmas cookies. every year i look forward to that little bundle of joy, which smells so happily of spices. in the past few years i’ve been able to exercise some restraint and bring some of the cookies home to share with my family, but it is true that i am partial to the star-shaped, pink-lemon-icing-adorned hazelnut butter cookies, as well as the gingersnaps. it is a mystery to me how gingersnaps can be so delightfully spicy. eat a jessica-gingersnap, and you are on the road to nose-tingling spiciness; you will exhale spicy CO2 while you eat the cookie.
i suspect that the source of this spice-joy is a liberal amount of ginger. bored at home, i set out to make an equally spicy cookie. while trolling epicurious.com for suitable recipes, i decided that since i was going to make christmas cookies, i might as well make a few different kinds. i settled on three recipes: gingersnaps, oatmeal cookies, and butter cookies.
i ran into trouble when i made the gingersnaps: we only had about a teaspoon of powdered ginger. i sadly replaced it with a combination of ground cloves, allspice, and cinnamon, but wondered how i would provide the mild bite of the jessica-gingersnap. i vaguely remembered something about black pepper in one of the recipes i had discarded during my search, and promptly added a small amount of black pepper. (more…)
and also for the recipe junkies, here is how i made the chicken gravy which i liked so much. again, like i did for the chicken stew, i eyeballed the amounts of things in this recipe, since i used what was around to make it. […]
on tuesday i spent much of the cleanup picking semi-raw chicken off the roasted chickens. by the fourth chicken i was tired of picking it off, and probably didn’t pick it as cleanly as a hungrier person might have. i packed all of that chicken […]
beef-thyme stew with mushrooms and swiss chard
3T olive oil or vegetable oil
2 lbs beef chuck, cut into large-ish chunks
3 large onions, halved and sliced
1T garlic, minced
2T fresh thyme, leaves stripped off stems and chopped fine
1 14.5-oz can diced tomatoes
2 10-oz boxes white mushrooms, sliced thickly and sauteed
1 bunch swiss chard
red wine
1 baguette or loaf of rustic-type bread
[1] heat half of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. brown beef and remove to a plate (tent with foil).
[2] add remaining oil and turn heat to medium. when the pan is hot, add onions and garlic. when the fond on the pan is about to burn, add 1/2c red wine. add thyme and bring the mixture to a simmer. add diced tomatoes (including juice) and let simmer until thickened slightly. (more…)
first, before i forget, the recipe for pasta i made a while back: pasta with bacon, onions, + tomatoes 1 pkg bacon 1 lb pasta (preferably shells) 1 1/2 lbs plum tomatoes, chopped (i suppose you could use 2 cans of diced tomatoes, drained, if […]