Early spring can be a frustrating time in the kitchen. There’s a warm breeze and the world seems to be exploding with new life, but the produce aisle is full of the same old root and cruciferous vegetables you’ve been eating all winter. What’s a cook to do? Last week, I turned to radishes. A…
Archives for 2010
Olive Oil Poached Shrimp with Garlic
In my hurry to get food ready for this weekend’s Easter picnic, I foolishly failed to take a picture of these beautiful shrimp, swimming in a golden pool of garlicky olive oil. So instead, I bring you this silly picture of my friend Joe about to enjoy one. Seriously, though, these shrimp are luxurious. Their…
Quick Eats: Creamy Banana Oatmeal
Before I started this blog, I did not believe I was obsessed with breakfast. Now I’m starting to wonder. Maybe I should see a therapist. I’ve tended to be on the fence about oatmeal. I liked it okay, but only with an abundance of cream and brown sugar, which made me feel that I was…
Peanut Butter and Jelly French Toast
I’m just going to say that again: Peanut Butter and Jelly French Toast. I don’t have to tell you how good it is, do I? Hot, eggy bread, fruity jelly, a drizzle of maple syrup – and best of all, the soothing, silky, over-the-top richness of warm peanut butter.And it is hardly any trouble at…
Hunanese Smoky Bacon with Tofu and Broccolette
Lately I have been making myself very hungry by reading Fuchsia Dunlop’s beautiful Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province. It features lots of interesting ingredients, some of which I bought yesterday at Talin Market and am a little daunted by (fermented bean curd, anyone?) The ingredient I was surprised to find liberally used throughout…
Quick Eats: Fried Spaghetti
This is an idea I’ve come across a couple of times, but this particular time I saw it in Best American Recipes 2005-2006. And this is the time when, a few weeks after seeing the recipe, I got sick and my sweetie made me spaghetti for dinner. And there were leftovers. And what on earth…
Alta Lodge Granola
I do not care for cereal. Cereal is boring. It’s what you eat on grumpy, hurried mornings when you can’t think of or don’t have time for anything else. It’s pale brown and lumpy, and poured out of a pasteboard box. If you don’t eat it fast enough, it gets soggy in its cold milk…
Homemade Ricotta Cheese
I made cheese! I always thought this was a complex process – and still have no doubt that this is true for hard cheeses – but this homemade ricotta was a snap. Better yet, it was delicious! I found it in the “Appetizers” chapter of Best American Recipes 2005 – 2006. They cookbook suggested mixing…
Perfect Buttermilk Pancakes
In Berkeley, California, there is a diner called Bette’s. Bette’s Oceanview Diner, in fact, though it is nowhere near the ocean. Perhaps there is a story there, though it’s not on the “All About Bette’s” page of their website. In any case, Bette’s is beloved, and not just by me. It’s a classic place –…
Elsie’s Gingerbread
This is the first gingerbread I ever made, and still the best I’ve had. It’s rich and spicy and soft and moist, with the unusual touch of a bit of streusel on top (which takes no extra effort, as it’s just a bit of the dry ingredients before the wet are added). Gingerbread is one…