I grew up with the boisterous cacophony of a large Chinese family squeezed around a dinner table stretched to its limits. When my maternal grandparents and aunt were still alive, we gathered together for these feasts at least a dozen times a year–sometimes at one of our homes, other times in a Chinese restaurant where…
Month: May 2021
The Bare Essentials…or one baker’s survival kit
I hadn’t intended to write a two-part series on home baking for the “hungry intermittent enthusiast” (friend Stephanie’s words), but my last post extolling the virtues of foundational recipes prompted requests from both Stephanie and my niece Caroline to provide a list of the bare essential ingredients they should have on hand to satisfy those…
Do you know the muffin (wo)man?
My friend Stephanie is what I’d call an enthusiastic intermittent baker–that is to say inspired intermittently to fire up her oven…usually immediately after she’s watched a cooking and/or food competition show…or seen one of my IG food pics…or merely hungry for a particular baked good. Regardless of the impetus, Stephanie likes to just dive in,…
What the Keebler Elves didn’t know…
Okay, I’m not knocking those cute Keebler Elves. They make some fine cookies. I’m just saying that the range of flavors and textures in their products seem a bit…unadventurous. Ditto for most of the other major brands. Whether the cookies are crumbly crisp or soft-baked, with or without chocolate, layered with caramel, peanut butter and/or…