The Pig and I

It's that time of year again. The time when it's cold (for Houston), and the time when I'm finishing up yet another semester. One more to go to complete the master's program before I start the PhD. Woo! This time of year brings the crock pot front and center in my life since it lends itself well to getting me fed when I have no time to cook, and also because it usually results in yummy soups, braised foods, and stuff like that. This recipe was born out of a need to feed myself, DH, DD and my Old English partner as we finalized our translation of Judith . I had mostly expected this food to be decent but it was quite a lot better than I expected and will be going into the "no time to cook!" rotation. Hope you enjoy! 2 pounds boneless pork ribs 1-2 cups each: carrots cut into 1" pieces, celery cut into 1" pieces, chopped red onion 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce 8 ounces water or beer (I used water; beer is for bread) 1 tablespoon each: parsley, thyme,

I'm taking Old English right now and really enjoying the class. To celebrate the language and culture of the West Saxons, I decided I should bring some Saxon foods to class (I decided this a month or so ago but am actually doing it tomorrow). I had a lot of research to do because I wanted it to be as authentic as possible. Originally I planned to do sloe berries or plums, but that didn't really pan out. And then I saw some crab apples at the store and I got pretty excited because that's way better than plums and an equally appropriate choice (more so if you consider the season). I made some farmer's cheese and some sweet butter, and saved the whey and buttermilk to also bring to class. And then I worked on getting down a good bread that seemed to fit the descriptions I'd read. Lastly, the fruit. Can't have this type of snack or meal without fruit, right? I made everything mostly without modern conveniences, which means I cooked this over a fire. Unless you'r

I need to start this post by saying that the quantities are approximate. I mostly eye-balled this, with only a desire for delicious, thick, rich, almost pudding-like and slightly bitter hot chocolate in the Venetian style. This is what I got, and I'm really pleased. It's a very serious hot chocolate, with no whipped cream, marshmallows or frivolity. It's just good. It coats the tongue and burns slightly because I'm too impatient to let it cool enough. For me, it's what I need on a chilly evening. Especially with the risotto that doesn't seem to want to get done fast enough (always the problem with risotto I suppose). So, here y'all go - hope you enjoy! 1/2 cup cream 2 cups milk 1/8 cup vanilla sugar (or regular granulated) 1/2 tablespoon vanilla extract 1 - 1 1/2 cups grated chocolate or chocolate chips Put all the ingredients in a small saucepan and put on the stove over medium heat. Heat until it starts to simmer slightly. Whisk continuously until

I'd been craving waffles in the craziest of ways lately, but I didn't have an iron and I didn't really want to get one since I hate having "unitaskers" in my kitchen. Finally I decided that I could get an iron, but only if I made waffles at least twice a week. So that's been happening. As an added bonus, it turns out that Ilana really likes waffles (hard to believe she eats solid foods now) so once she's on three meals a day, waffles will be her weekday breakfast since it only takes seven minutes from the moment you start mixing the batter until the first waffle or two is out of the iron. This variety of waffles happened because she doesn't like white pumpkin (she does like yellow pumpkin) and so I have a bunch of white pumpkin puree that needs to be used up (she'll eat her pumpkin if it's in waffles, though). The chocolate chips were added since Ross has been munching on them by the handful recently. Hope you enjoy! 2 cups all-purpose flour

I love marrow bones. I love frying thick slices of homemade bread in a stick of butter to eat it with. I love the mouth-feel of marrow. I love the fatty goodness, and how full and satisfied I feel after I eat them. I love how well they pair with pretty much any bright food you want to eat. I love how quickly they cook. I also love how inexpensive they are. I got about a pound and a half for $2, spent about $2.40 on vegetables (we also had roasted broccoli with this), and another $0.90 cents on the loaf of bread I made and the butter to fry it in (even better, if you have stale bread it's perfect for this!). So all in all, we got an awesome meal (plus enough for Ross to take to work for lunch) for slightly more than five bucks, which I love. If you haven't tried marrow, and you're not icked by this sort of thing, I highly recommend this affordable and delicious meal (my version or anyone else's - all of them, actually. I would love to try every marrow preparation known t

I've been on this thing lately where I've been buying beets that are about as big as my head. I don't know why I'm buying these because it's seriously a lot of food. But I'm glad I have been because it's been an adventure in deciding what to do with 4 cups worth of beet that all has to be used quickly. Once again, I have (half) a beet in my fridge, though it was a lot more. The last head-sized beet probably had half of it eaten in little handfuls of diced beet as I walked on by it and the rest went into things, like an enchilada sauce (that I'll tell y'all about as soon as I remember what I did). This time, I had made falafel for dinner but was out of both sesame seeds and tahini so I couldn't make the type of hummus I wanted. Instead I used the chick peas to make a salad and we all agreed it was a wonderful addition to the falafel. Hope you enjoy! 1 can chick peas, drained and rinsed (or a can's worth of cooked from dry, so about 1 1/2 cu

Shrimp and grits. This classic Lowcountry dish is one of those Southern foods that makes me really understand how a person could love Southern food. Which is not to say I don't like Southern food, but I do find it really heavy with its emphasis on everything fried or laden with lard (both things I love, but moderation and all that). I would call this shrimp and polenta but Ross, being a Texan, prefers the word "grits" over "polenta." I'm not sure why this is since they're basically the same thing, but here we are anyway. It's a delicious meal no matter what you call it, and one I nearly always enjoy since it has a kind of breakfast for dinner feel without actually being breakfast for dinner. Hope you enjoy! 1 cup cornmeal 3 - 3 1/2 cups water salt and pepper to taste 3 tablespoons each: parmesan, butter 1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined (I used previously frozen) 2 tablespoons each: vegetable oil, lard, butter salt and pepper to tast

Stewed okra is wonderful, don't you think? Well, I guess if you're one of those okra hating people you might not think so. If you're one of those okra hating people, it might be because you think okra is always slimy and gross. But that's not always the case, and the preparation style really determines if the okra will be unpleasant or not. So, if you hate okra give this a shot and see how you feel about it. Ross mentioned to me as I was typing this up that he really enjoyed the okra and was glad I'd done the stewed okra in a way that it wasn't slimy. If you love okra, you might enjoy adding this to your list of okra goodies. Hope you enjoy! 12 ounces thickly sliced okra (I used frozen which I did not bother to thaw first but you can do it with fresh) 2 15-ounce cans stewed tomatoes 20 ounces vegetable stock (you can make this a meat dish by using chicken stock) 2 teaspoons creole seasoning (or regular seasoned salt) 1 tablespoon dried thyme 1/2 teaspoon

This is an Israeli style green falafel. Green falafel is my favorite kind, because the flavors of the herbs are so very pronounced. I really just find it delightful, so that's the kind I wanted to do for dinner tonight. This dish is really very easy to make, and tops out at about $3 to make about 36 falafel balls. A lot of people shape their falafel with one of those scoops. I'm personally torn on the falafel scoop, because on the one hand, really cool contraption! On the other hand, it has exactly one use, and that makes it hard for me to justify giving up drawer space to something like that. I'm always looking about to see if there is one for sale at some of my favorite shops, but there never is and that's okay. Spoons and wet hands work perfectly well for shaping these little balls of happiness. Anyway, these are really delicious. They're also shockingly easy to make. With a food processor, it takes less than 5 minutes to put the whole mixture together, and the

I wanted a lasagna today to go with the ricotta and mozarella I made, but I only had 4 lasagna sheets left and no time to make more. So instead of the usual method, I just made it in a bread pan and that worked well. This lasagna was far better than I anticipated it would be. Hope you enjoy! 4 lasagna sheets 1 14-ounce can each: tomato sauce, stewed tomatoes 2 tablespoons lemon juice 1 teaspoon each: salt, rosemary, basil, marjoram, parsley (I used all dried; use 1 tablespoon each if fresh, except the salt) 1 bay leaf 1/4 teaspoon celery salt 1 tablespoon each: dried onion, dried garlic 1/2 leek, sliced thinly 1 cup thinly sliced celery 2 tablespoons each: butter, lemon juice, vegetable oil 1 12-ounce package frozen spinach (thawed) salt to taste 1/2 pound each: ricotta, mozzarella Simmer the tomatoes, lemon, spices, dried onion and dried garlic for 30 minutes. In a separate pan, melt the butter into the oil over medium heat. Add leeks, celery and salt and cook down

I have a project coming up in the next week or so involving a lot of baking treats for people. Since there's going to be baguette involved, I thought I'd make a couple compound butters to go with it. This is one of them. It's perfect for spreading on bread, for baking into bread (for garlic bread), or apparently just for tasting with a spoon. Hope you enjoy! 2 tablespoons tarragon (I used Mexican) 2 tablespoons roasted garlic 4 tablespoons (half a stick) butter pinch salt Put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor (I prefer the processor for this since it's easier to clean and also easier to get the butter out) until the herbs are well chopped but not homogenously blended with the butter. Makes about 5-6 tablespoons.

I had a couple halibut steaks I wanted to make for us, but I was also feeling lazy and not like paying attention to my fish. So I ended up deciding to do it this way, since you can just plunk it in the oven and come back later. Plus, it's already portioned out and you get to open up a fun, steamy package. Hope you enjoy! 2 6-ounce halibut filets 2 tablespoons each: thinly sliced green onions, thinly sliced celery, butter, lemon juice, radish greens (optional) salt and pepper to taste 1 garlic clove, sliced thinly lengthwise 2 small sprigs each: mint, Thai basil 1/2 tablespoon olive oil Preheat oven to 425F. Get out two pieces of parchment paper and brush them with olive oil on one side, leaving a 2" border around the edges free of oil. Put a piece of fish on each piece of parchment, then season with salt and pepper. Add half of the onions, celery, butter, lemon juice, radish greens, garlic, mint and basil to the top of each filet (I put the butter on the very top). Fo

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with ragout. In my mind, it's not that good but it is easy to make when I feel pressed for energy to devote to cooking. In reality, I love eating ragout because it's good. Really good. This one I particularly enjoyed. I will try to remember I like things like this so I can make them more often. Hope you enjoy! 1 lb Italian sausage, casings removed (or even better, without them at all) salt and pepper to taste 1 onion, chopped 3 carrots, diced 2 stalks celery, sliced thinly 6 cloves garlic, chopped 1 8-ounce can mushrooms 1 15-ounce can each: crushed tomatoes, stewed tomatoes (cut up a bit) 2 cups veggie stock 1 tablespoon dried parsley 2 teaspoons dried marjoram 1 bay leaf 1/4 teaspoon chile flakes 1 small sprig rosemary, left whole 3 sprigs basil (I used Thai since it's growing profusely and the Genevese isn't yet), torn into pieces Over medium heat, fry sausage in a large saucepan. Add remainder of first grou

I found some nice-looking short ribs the other day on sale, and originally I'd planned to make them Korean style. But then I was looking around in my fridge and pantry and saw there was a fair amount of the massive amount of produce I'd purchased recently that was looking a little peaky and in need of cooking. So instead, I opted to do it in beer* in the slow cooker (alternately, Dutch oven in a slow oven will be good as well) so I could use up some produce and still have a tender, delicious and healthful meal. Hope you enjoy! 1 pound boneless beef short ribs 1 cup each: yellow bell pepper (cut into chunks), mixed greens (mostly kale and radish greens is what I used) 4 carrots, roughly chopped 3 stalks celery, roughly chopped 2 ears corn, cut into 1-inch rounds 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped (with juices) 1 onion, roughly chopped 1 bay leaf 1 bulb of garlic, cloves peeled and left whole salt and pepper to taste 1/2-3/4 cups dark ale Put all of the above into a 4-quar

I discovered I still had a turkey in the freezer a while ago and had spent some time making my plan of action. You kind of have to do that with turkeys, because there's just so much meat to them. I roasted the turkey on Monday, and so on Tuesday it was time to start working through the leftovers. This soup was perfect. Turkey, but not too turkey (mostly because there wasn't room in the pot for some flesh). Hope you enjoy! 1 turkey carcass 1 onion, quartered 1 lemon, cut in half water to cover 1/2 pound kale 2 ears of corn, cut into rounds 3 tomatoes, chopped 2 carrots, sliced 5 stalks of celery, sliced 1 pound mushrooms, sliced 1 onion, cut into half moons 1/3 cup wheat berries water if needed salt and pepper to taste Bring the first group of ingredients to a boil then simmer for one hour. Strain, reserving stock. Put stock and second group of ingredients in a soup pot and bring to a boil. Let boil 5-10 minutes then simmer for one hour. Serves 4-6.

I realized today that I still had some of those wonderful candied peels Lisa sent me earlier this year, and I got really excited. See, I had decided to use some cantaloupe that I'd frozen in cupcakes today, to go with our leftovers meal of red beans and rice, and that fricassee. But when I discovered those hiding (from Ross, I'm guessing, since I can't imagine why else I'd have hidden it. Though it's possible I hid it from myself so I wouldn't plow through them all before I got to use them in recipes either) in the fridge, I realized that the perfect compliment to my cupcakes was not going to be lemon butter cream, but instead would be vanilla butter cream with PEELS IN THEM! I was supposed to make more butter cream anyway, since Ross likes to put it in his coffee (I know how weird that sounds, but it's oddly delicious) so all of this works out to be full of win for all the tummies in this house. Anyway, I can't see any reason why you couldn't do t

I'm still in the process of using up things in the fridge, freezer and pantry that I don't want in the house anymore, or which are simply getting old. Today is another of those meals. It's a meat meal this time, because I had a larger amount of chicken breast in the freezer than I realized. Also, I am planning a huge shopping trip soon, so I'd like to eat up as much of the older meats and such and get a new batch of meat in there that's more reflective of the amounts of each we generally consume. Hope you enjoy! 1 large onion, cut into half moons 2-3 tablespoons olive oil 1 teaspoon each: kosher salt, pepper 1 tablespoon herbes de Provence zest of one small lemon juice of half of the lemon 2 cloves of garlic, sliced lengthwise very thinly 1 pound boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1-2" pieces pinch each: kosher salt, pepper, herbes de Provence 2 ladles of vegetable or chicken broth (around 2/3 cup) 3/4 - 1 cup whole picholine or nicoise

I have some lemons and yogurt I need to use, and I also am growing some Thai basil. I have a tendency to sometimes neglect the proper pruning needs of my plants, so I've been trying to be better about that lately. This cake came of my desire to use these two ingredients, but also of my desire to have a dessert that would pair well with minestrone and brown bread for dinner. Hope you enjoy! Cake: 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon baking powder 1 teaspoon kosher salt 1 cup plain yogurt 1 cup sugar 3 large eggs zest of a lemon 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/2 cup vegetable oil 1/3 cup lemon juice 3 sprigs Thai basil Glaze: 1-2 cups confectioners’ sugar juice of a small lemon Combine the lemon juice, sugar and basil in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil, then simmer for a minute or so and remove from the heat. Let cool. Preheat oven to 350F. Whisk together eggs, zest, yogurt, strained basil syrup, vanilla and salt. Then whisk in baking powder, then flour. F

I really like steel cut oatmeal. I do not like rolled oatmeal. It's a textual thing, I guess? Either way, despite the increasing heat here in Houston I've been on an oatmeal kick. This one is particularly fun because it has blueberries in it, and who doesn't like blueberries? Also, it takes only a few minutes to make, and then you just heat it in the morning with your sugars. Hope you enjoy! 1 cup steel cut oats 2 tablespoons butter 1-2 teaspoons kosher salt 1/4 cup dried blueberries (if you're wanting to use fresh or frozen, use more) 4 cups water 2 tablespoons agave 1/4 cup brown sugar (not packed) 1 teaspoon vanilla Melt butter in a 2-quart saucepan over high heat. Add oats and salt, and stir around, frying for about a minute. Add water and blueberries (but don't add these yet if you're using fresh or frozen) and bring to a boil. Let boil one minute, turn off the heat and put the lid on. Leave it on the stove until you come back in the morning (I

I've been trying to work through a lot of beans lately. Not only as an efficient way to up my protein consumption, but also because I still have some left from the Cave. So, y'know. One of my goals has been to use up the legumes we don't really eat a lot of, and one of those is black eyed peas (turtle beans). We actually do like to eat those, but mostly fresh or frozen instead of dried and cooked. This seemed like a fun way to use some up, and also to use up a bunch of stuff in the fridge that I didn't want to go to waste. I expected this dish to be fun and good, but it was quite a bit more delicious than I'd anticipated. This will definitely be making it into our normal rotation. Hope you enjoy! 1 can black eyed peas, drained and rinsed (unless you cooked them from dry, but still drain them) 1/2 pound fusili, cooked to package directions zest and juice of 1/2 lemon 1/2 cup diced salt pork salt to taste 3 tablespoons olive oil 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

This is basically like cottage cheese (except strained), and not like ricotta. I like to use it for pizzas, for lasagna, and also for eating (if I remember to salt it. If I don't, I like to cook with it). Hope you enjoy! 1 quart of milk (you can use more and not change the amount of lemon juice, up to around a gallon of milk) 1/4 cup lemon juice (or less for a batch this small - up to you) Heat milk to 185F. Remove from heat and stir in about 1/4 cup of lemon juice. Let sit for a few minutes to separate well into curds (it will look like curdled milk, because that's basically what it is). Line a strainer with cheesecloth then put the strainer over a bowl. Pour the curds and whey into the strainer, then tie the ends of the cheesecloth tightly around the curds. Tie the cheese to the knob of a kitchen cabinet or something similar, with the bowl (you can wash and put away the strainer now) under the cheese to catch the drippings. Come back in the morning and untie the c

The pizza? Spectacular. Here's how we made it; hope you enjoy! dough for 1 crust  sauce for one pizza 4 ounces (1 cup) mozzarella 1 cup fresh farmer's cheese (you could use strained ricotta or cottage instead) large handful pepperoni 1/2 15-ounce can artichoke hearts (not marinated, but yes drain them well) 1/4 cup each: shredded carrots, chopped onions, chopped celery 1 cup-ish spinach Preheat oven (preferably with stone in it) to 500F. Spread out the dough into a square or whatever (I like rectangles). Top with sauce (about a half cup or so should do it), then top with pepperoni. Add cheeses, then veggies and bake for 10 minutes. Cool 5 minutes. Cut, eat, move on with your day. Serves 2 (okay, this should serve 4. But today it served two).

We've been using a lot of cereal lately, mostly in cereal bars and for snacks. But for breakfasts, I prefer if we're going to eat cereal (instead of the baked potatoes I've been obsessed with the last few days) for it to be something that's not full of preservatives and such. Otherwise it doesn't actually seem like breakfast so much as dessert. Here's the granola I made as an alternative. Hope you enjoy! 4 cups rolled oats 1/4 cup each: wheat germ, bran 2 teaspoons kosher salt 1 cup chopped walnuts 1/2 cup each: vegetable oil, honey 1 cup chopped dried apricots Heat oven to 250F. Mix together the oats, germ, bran, walnuts and salt. Whisk together the honey and vegetable oil, then pour it into the oat mixture and stir until well incorporated. Put on a sheet pan and put in the oven. Give it an hour and a half in the oven, but stir it every 15 or so minutes so it doesn't burn. Once you take it out of the oven, let it cool a bit then add the apricot

I decided to make tuna casserole tonight. It's another very simple thing to make, and there is no canned soup in it despite it being in the same style as some of the canned soup versions of this dish. Hope you enjoy! 4 5-ounce cans of tuna packed in water, drained 1 pound wide egg noodles, boiled for 6 minutes 1-2 cups corn (can be canned, fresh or frozen, although I usually use frozen) 1 tablespoon lemon pepper 2 tablespoons butter pinch salt 3/4 cup chopped celery 2 tablespoons butter 2-3 tablespoons superfine flour (like Wondra) 1 1/2-ish cups milk salt and pepper to taste few grates fresh nutmeg Put the first group of ingredients in a large casserole dish. Melt two tablespoons of butter over medium to medium high heat in a small saucepan and add celery and salt. Fry the celery in the butter until the butter is browned and smells nutty, and until the celery is darkened and somewhat crisp. Spoon out celery (leaving as much butter in possible in the saucepan) and

We went to a restaurant called Roost uh... a long time ago (before I was even pregnant, I think). They had this amazing fried cauliflower that had a barely memorable sauce and was sprinkled with bonito. Although the sauce on its own was pretty forgettable, the combination of these factors was mind-blowingly delicious. And I remembered it, meaning to get around to working out the sauce ingredients. Ultimately, however, I decided to just make up a new sauce and be done with it. Well, and I decided to roast the cauliflower (I actually forgot for a while there's was fried since was roasted was in my brain). Here it is. We ate this with sausage and kraut, but the cauliflower was more certainly the star of the dinner and we were VERY sad there wasn't more of that to eat. So this will definitely be repeated. If you want it to be vegetarian, leave out the bonito. But if you do that, find a salty substitute, because the bonito is, in all ways, the icing for this cake. Any leftover sauc

I hate pot pies. Hate them. I really will never understand what makes people like them. But cottage and shepherd pies? LOVE. We wanted to up the amount of beans we eat, since it's an easy way to increase protein in the diet, and I made a huge batch of Appaloosa beans. Also, Ross really wanted to have a casserole, and since I think normally the only two casseroles I make are lasagna and tuna it seemed like a fun way to mix things up. So I thought I'd put a couple cans' worth in this, in place of some other kind of meat. I called it green not because it's environmentally friendly (although it is that), but because the avocado in the mashed potatoes makes it literally green. Which is kind of fun, unless you don't like that sort of thing in which case you can just wait until Saint Patrick's day to make this. Anyway, if you're wanting this with meat, just add that in (before the veggies) and take out (or not) the beans. Hope you enjoy! 2 big glugs olive oil 3

We had some soujuk in the freezer, and now that I'm not pregnant the smell doesn't make me sick. I wanted to eat it, and have been saving it for when I could eat it again. But I didn't want to have breakfast for dinner, so I decided (when I came across some chick peas I'd cooked for hummus and frozen for later) to make a stew to go with it. It evolved a lot while it was being made, and it was really, really wonderful. I'm looking forward to eating some for breakfast with leftover bread, too. Hope you enjoy! 1 clove minced garlic 1 diced soujuk (or about 2 tablespoons diced other sausage) 1-2 teaspoons olive oil 2 cloves minced garlic 1 large onion, diced 2 cups sliced celery (about 4 stalks), with leaves 1/2 orange bell pepper, diced 2 tablespoons olive oil zest from half a Meyer lemon salt and pepper to taste 1/2 teaspoon each: basil, dill, sumac, mint juice from half a Meyer lemon 5 ounces frozen spinach (can be thawed or not) 1 12-ounce bottle

I didn't get around to making breakfast pastries this morning, and since my intention is to sleep in tomorrow, I know I won't do them in the morning then either. So I decided to go ahead and throw together some bergamot-cranberry muffins so Ross will have foods to take with him for breakfast. It's a pretty standard muffin set-up, with a little extra. Hope you enjoy! 1 cup milk (I only had soy milk for some reason, which is weird since neither of us drink soy milk, so I used that) 1 large egg 1/2 cup bergamot juice (you could use lemon, or any other citrus for this) 1/4 vegetable oil 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup sugar (reduce this if using a sweet citrus) 2-ish cups flour (I admit, I did not measure very carefully, so it was somewhere between 2 and 2 1/4 cups) 1 - 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder (see flour measuring above) 1 cup whole frozen (and thawed if you have time) cranberries Whisk together everything in the first group of ingredients. Add flour and baking pow

I finally had the baby, so we're leaning strongly toward meals that can be eaten for a few days at a time. I'm giving extra preference to things that can just be made from odds and ends I find in the fridge too, since I'm still working out the logistics of running errands with an infant. After I'd attempted to make some yogurt for Ross, and overheated it, I wound up with some really lovely farmer's cheese. So, I hung it to drain overnight, and salted it in the morning. We decided that lasagna would be the result of this mistake. Adding to that a tomato sauce made from canned products and random veggies in the fridge, this turned out to be significantly more delicious than either Ross or I expected it to be. And because it actually worked out really well, here it is. Hope you enjoy! 1 box no boil lasagna noodles (unless you just like boiling your own) 1 14-ounce can each: crushed tomatoes, stewed tomatoes, diced tomatoes 1 8-ounce can tomato sauce juice of two l

I really wanted some Madeleines. For a while, I've been wanting some. But since I have these bergamots, I thought I should use some of them for it. Unfortunately I didn't have a pan, and I didn't really want to buy one. Aside from a clutter issue, there's also the unitasker issue as well as the "how often will I really make these? Enough to warrant the cabinet space?" question. So, instead of going out and finding a pan, I asked my Facebook friends if anyone had a pan I could borrow (and return with a batch of fresh pastries). Not surprisingly, no one actually had this specialty pan (or if they did, I guess they just didn't want to share it?). So I went out to find one, ultimately deciding that I will simply make sure I use it often enough to warrant the space it'll take up. I remembered seeing some old tin ones in thrift shops lately. I mostly remember it because I saw a bunch, and I thought it was odd, and I also had to talk myself out of getting o

I think that Lisa might actually be the Citrus Goddess of my dreams. Just when I think she's shocked and awed me with not only her fruit selections, but her incredible generosity in sharing these fruits with me, she pulls another trick out of her sleeve. This time, with the box of bergamots that came yesterday, were five Ichangensis lemons. I kind of didn't believe it at first, while I was staring at them in my lap. I was thinking, "there's no way these are what they say they are. How is this even possible?" I was so shocked that I actually set the bergamots (you won't believe this) to the side so I could just stare at this rare and impossible to find fruit for a few minutes. See, you guys may not know this about me, but bergamot, although my favorite citrus in the world, is not the only citrus I am interested in. I kind of love them all. Everyone of them has its own kind of personality, allure, mystery and thing about it that makes it beautiful and perfec

Lisa very, very kindly has sent me a new batch of bergamots! I have a lot of plans for these guys. Perhaps too many plans, since I might actually need a tree of my very own to have enough fruit to make as much stuff as I'm interested in. But I'm going to roll through as much of my list (which I'm keeping a surprise!) as I can, so we all have new ways to play with bergamot. So, feel no surprise if you see nothing BUT bergamot from me for a little bit. This only happens once a year, so I figure y'all can be entertained by it instead of annoyed. Also, feel free to make any of these recipes with another citrus fruit than bergamot. Y'all should also expect to see a lot of adapted pastry recipes, because pastry is what I'm particularly interested in right now. Which is kind of weird, considering I don't have much of a sweet tooth. The original scone recipe I adapted this from can be found here, at Rock Recipes . The original recipe has raisins in it, and stuff l

I guess I've been on an Italian kick lately. I'm not really sure why, but I'm going to blame it on the fetus. Every time I eat Italian food or drink coffee, it's like a Solid Gold dance-a-thon is going on in my uterus. Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about this particular dish for a while now. I've been hesitant to make it, because Ross is really not huge on black pepper. He'll eat it (but admittedly, there's only been one time since I've known him that he's refused to eat something. Generally he'll eat things he doesn't even like, unlike me), but he's not into it. And generally, he'd prefer to just dispense with the pepper entirely if possible. So that can make serving this kind of a mean thing - I mean, imagine: you're sitting there, happy as a clam with your massive bowl of yums, while your companion is sitting there picking at their massive bowl of yucks. I really feel like if eating isn't making you supremely happy

I had gnocchi in my head for a few days, but no fresh potatoes. Eventually I decided that since I always keep instant potatoes around for when I want a 2-minute lunch (usually when I'm sick), I would use those instead. I suppose I could have gone to the store, but I really, really didn't want to. So, cheater gnocchi it was. This worked out really well, and was substantially less work than making mashed potatoes from fresh, so I'll likely do it this way again. We ate very well. Hope you enjoy! Gnocchi: 2 cups instant potato flakes 2 cups boiling water 1 1/2 - 2 cups all-purpose flour 1 egg 1-2 teaspoons salt Mix the instant potatoes with the water and salt and let sit for a couple minutes to hydrate (alternately, you can use a pound of fresh potatoes, which should make roughly the same amount). Let them cool until they're easy to handle with bare hands, then knead in the egg and enough flour to make a smooth dough. Knead the dough until it's not very sticky