My older brother has pretty mean (and by mean, I mean awesome) bread-making skills. I can’t remember when exactly he started refining his craft, but the bread-making has been a semi-annual summer and/or Christmastime event (basically every time he comes back to visit) since well before I graduated college. I’m also not quite sure what…
Project NYT: Flat-and-chewy chocolate chip cookies
For most of my life, I’ve defined cookie perfection based on a few standard characteristics: taste (that’s a given), texture (which depends on the cookie kind) and overall fluffiness (fluffy = good; fluffier = better). Although I dabble in a lot of cookie making, I always come back to these traits as signatures of success,…
Project NYT: Brown sugar shortbread
I am a major coffee fan, but there are some foods that demand a right cup of tea rather than my usual cup of Joe. Shortbread is definitely one of those foods. It’s such a slightly sweet, slightly crisp, delicate as all get-out kind of cookie, it just seems wrong to overshadow its subtle flavor…
You’re welcome, houseguest: Butternut sage scones
I’ve decided after yesterday that risotto is to cooking as scones are to baking. Yes, they might seem intimidating at first. Yes, it takes a little work to prepare them properly. Yes, they seem much more complicated than they actually are. And yes, the extra effort you put into them will result in a delicious…
Project NYT: Purple plum torte
What a good girl am I. Yes, that is a plum pun. Plum funny, isn’t it? I’ve been itching to make this plum torte from the Essential New York Times Cookbook since last October, when I saw Amanda Hesser whip it up in no time flat on the Today Show. Actually, it was that recipe…
Pumpkin muffin experiment
Despite my self-assuredness (and great relief) that I’d never again have need to enter a science class upon graduation from college, I’ve found myself in quite the experimental mood lately. A few weeks ago, my friend April suggested here on the blog that I try adding some brown sugar loveliness to my pumpkin cake recipe,…
Sometimes love is sweet: Valentine linzer cookies
Valentine’s Day is Monday, and love is most certainly in the air. My good friends welcomed their new baby last night (love, love, love!) and Ella has met a new puppy friend that she seems quite smitten with. There’s all sorts of happy going on these days, and nothing says “I love life,” or “Love…
Delicious distractions
Wednesday afternoon was a first for me. As I sat at my desk and typed away on work-related odds and ends, I clicked on my Twitter feed just as @food52 tweeted about this week’s wildcard winner on their site. Normally I don’t have any trouble clicking back and forth between Twitter updates and the task…
Feeling cold, tasting spring: Lemon olive oil cake
Yesterday felt like the coldest day of the year. I think the high hovered somewhere near 16, and the wind chill prompted atypical alerts about dangerously cold winds and frostbite possibilities on my trusty Weather Channel app. Normally, this sort of bone-chilling weather would lead me toward the soup section of a cookbook, or at…
Project NYT: Parmesan crackers, no boxes allowed
In the short while since I started this blog, the words made from scratch have taken on such new meaning to me. It’s no longer just about following a recipe or venturing beyond the boxed cake mix. Rather, it’s about taking even the simplest of foods and reducing them to their bare bones ingredients: the…