Dessert
Puff Pastry with Honey and Nuts – Pseudo Baklava
I love this dessert. It’s easy, quick, and most importantly, delicious. This dessert has enjoyed a successful introduction to my family, co-workers, and a CSA pot luck. There are several things that make this recipe extra easy. One, is that I use store-bought puff pastry. As you know, I have no room for working with dough (see my kitchen), so these shortcuts become more of a necessity. But I don’t mind, it makes my life easier, and that’s a much welcomed thing. (However, if you’d like to try your hand at home-made puff pastry, check out Sofya’s version.) I wish everything was as easily simplified as puff pastry dough. But...
Read MoreThe best leftovers: ice cream and raspberry sauce
I always seem to end up with a few bits leftover after making jam and I’m always trying to figure out how to use them up. On this particular day, the few tablespoons of raspberry jam became the most delicious topping for home made vanilla ice cream (recipes coming later). How do you typically use up the little remnants of meals or cooking process? Share this:
Read MoreFather’s Day
I love that there is such a holiday as Father’s Day. I think the good men in our lives don’t get enough recognition and a day dedicated just for them is a great way to reflect on all the good things they do and to tell them how much we love and treasure them. Today, we celebrate the fathers in our lives, and I’m celebrating mine. And so, for this special occasion, we’re getting together at my place for some feasting. (Is it selfish to relish the idea of cooking for people who enjoy your food, especially if you’ve been away from your kitchen for a while?) Nibbles/Appetizers/Salads: Egg Salad — This time, I added one...
Read MoreMeringue and fruit trifles (Eaton Mess?)
[An alternate title for this post could have easily been "An ode to my KitchenAid"] I thought I saw a similar dessert on some cooking show but couldn’t find it anywhere online. The basic premise was to have a healthier and lighter-feeling dessert that tasted great and was fairly easy to make and something I could make ahead. I also wanted something a little crunchy and something with fruit. So, I thought I’d make meringue for the crunchy part and stew some frozen fruit for the fruit part. But I wasn’t quite sure what the topping should be. I wanted something creamy and investigated zabaglione and decided it was too much work at this time and thus...
Read MoreA Healthier Thanksgiving
I absolutely love Thanksgiving. It’s my favorite holiday. Not only do I get to cook up a feast, but people come and eat it and take food home too! But I also like the idea of having a day to get together with the family and count our blessings and all the positive and good things in our lives, no matter how small, for attitude is frequently half the battle. And this year, I wanted to keep the dishes on the healthier side so we wouldn’t feel quite so guilty for indulging. Come to think of it, it was quite a vitamin C and veggie feast. I had lots of red bell peppers and other veggies, used mostly healthy fats (olive oil) and banished soda from the table. Though...
Read MoreChocolate Cobbler
I crave chocolate on a regular basis and I figured I should make something myself instead of buying a gazillion-calorie chocolate cake at the store. So I started to scour the internet for an easy recipe that is quick to make and doesn’t require too many ingredients. This search yielded a recipe by Susan Hawkins at Tasty Kitchen. But you know me, I couldn’t leave it well enough alone and had to modify something. Because I’ve been in an experimental mood lately as it comes to my dessert, I thought about making this a little healthier. I have lots of room to play here, but this time I thought of switching out All-Purpose flour for Whole Wheat...
Read MoreBlueberry Muffins (breads)
I found a recipe for Blueberry Muffins on Lola’s website and they looked really good. So good and easy (read: I had all the ingredients) that I decided to give these a try. But I wanted to make these a little bit healthier and so I made a few substitutions. The main one is that I took out all the butter, not that there was too much to begin with. I used applesauce instead and used a little more buttermilk. The other substitution I made was the flour. Instead of all-purpose white flour I used whole wheat pastry flour. This is what gives these muffins a bread-like feel. They really do feel like individual little breads. A perfect healthy breakfast...
Read MoreSummer…
This summer has been incredibly hot and humid, to the point that I don’t really want to cook. Most of the time, my dinner during the week has been the tomato and onion salad, which I sometimes eat with a hot-dog. I love hot-dogs and I found a brand I like that uses good ingredients and I tend to boil the tar out of them (try it, see how much salt and fat floats to the top) and they are still tasty. But I have cooked some things: Fruit and Cheese Bars from Lola Mansurov — Mine didn’t turn out so pretty and I’ll make this again and post the results of the second attempt. Blueberry Muffins — from Lola Mansurov – These turned out pretty...
Read MoreCookies
You all know I’m not a baker and might be surprised by this post. Don’t be. I had very little to do with these cookies. Just added a stick of butter and an egg to a gloriously yummy Ghirardelli Triple Chocolate cookie mix. A fabulous Costco find. I’m taking these to work as a “Thank You” to a co-worker who let me use his parking space for a whole week while he was on vacation. You see, I typically take a bus to work because it’s so expensive to park downtown as well as a hassle looking for free parking. And free isn’t always free, such as when you get a parking ticket. So for a whole week, I had the pleasure of driving...
Read MoreFood-related goals
I’m a big fan of goals. I love New Year’s resolutions, personal goals, career goals, reading goals, traveling goals, etc. This year, I’m adding a food goal to my list. This might sound funny to some of you, but yes, I’m adding a culinary goal to my life. You see, I have an absolutely unnatural and irrational fear of baking. I know, strange. No good reason for it. Other than perhaps the fear of the mess I’d make, but my kitchen always looks like a tornado went through it after I’m done cooking. But baking towering cakes doesn’t really appeal to me and I’ve never been a dessert person (well, until a few years...
Read MorePuff Pastry "fingers"
This recipe is even easier (I know it’s really hard to believe) than my other puff pastry desert. It’s equally delicious, but I think that my dad likes this better because the can control (read pile on) the amount of strawberry jam. Here, I just placed a small bowl of softened jam so people can dip and eat as much as they’d like. Ingredients: 1 box Puff pastry dough (I used one sheet) Jam (which ever you like, as much as you like) Steps: 1. Cut the puff pastry dough in half length-wise and then in about inch intervals. 2. Bake until golden and puffy (about 400 degrees for about 12 minutes) 3. Dip the “fingers” into warmed jam. Or, split...
Read MoreBanana Bread Experiment
I’ve been looking for an easy recipe that doesn’t call for exotic ingredients. And by “exotic” I mean something I’d actually have to go look for in a store. My goal really was to use ingredients I already have on hand. And I really wanted to use bananas. Since I can’t really eat raw bananas and I really like how they smell, I was really looking forward to some kind of a banana bread. I learned that when fruit is cooked it has different digestive properties and those who are allergic to the raw variety might be able to eat the same fruit cooked. I’m one of those people when it comes to bananas. So, I found this recipe and...
Read MorePuff Pastry Dessert
Writing this blog entry takes longer than it takes to make this delicious dessert. I saw this on FoodNetwork, but there was no oven temperature and no duration listed, so I’ve been experimenting for a few weeks. It was a hit at work when I brought them in. Here is what I came up with (mostly inspired by Sunny Anderson’s recipe on FoodNetwork). Ingredients: 1 sheet of puff pastry (I used two) 2-4 tablespoons of fruit jam (I use apricot and strawberry; one for each sheet) 1 egg for the egg wash Powdered sugar (optional) Steps: Thaw the dough according the packaging Microwave the fruit jam for about 20 seconds 1. Open the dough and straighten it out (if you...
Read MoreThanksgiving
Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday, in large part because I love all the cooking. Most people dread all the cooking, but I even take Wednesday off so I can make a few “spares”, just in case something doesn’t turn out and people still leave with overstuffed bellies. I still love the holiday, despite the mandatory family squabbling. But without further delay, here is the menu I’m planning (and yes, I take help where I can): Appetizers: Chicken wings (not a Thanksgiving staple, but I love them and they seem to go over pretty well with the family). See above Seafood puffs (puff pastry stuffed with seafood, store bought, and I hope...
Read MoreCookbook – The Complete Guide to Traditional Jewish Cooking
There are so many things from my childhood I wish I knew how to make. So when I saw a recipe for what sounded familiar, I bought the book and wanted to try this recipe, as well as others. The book I bought is called The Complete Guide to Traditional Jewish Cooking and I tried several recipes, just to see how I like the book. One of the recipes I tried was for “Aubergine Caviar From Bessarabia” (page 89) . I had to remember that aubergine is an eggplant (and that a courgette is a zucchini). For years I’ve been wanting to make a dish that I remember one of my grandmas making, but I remember very little of it. I remember it had garlic, eggplant, and...
