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…
Category: Recipes
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…
Confessions of a not so secret snacker…or baking inspirations from the snack aisle
Every time I browse through the snack aisles at an Asian market nostalgia pulls me back to my childhood and days spent after school with my grandparents who plied me with small plates of assorted packaged tea cookies (aka biscuits), savory-sweet soy glazed rice crackers, and glossy baubles of Cadbury chocolate-covered almonds. No one, least…
Love in a bowl of soup
Long before the foodie world’s love affair with soup dumplings dominated the restaurant scene, there was wonton soup–the OG of Chinese fast casual fare. It was the standard quick lunch for many a worker, along with the assorted meat and rice plate–roast duck, bbq pork, soy sauce chicken, crackling skin roast pork, take your pick….
The Escape Artist
It’s a rare thing when I come across a cookbook I not only want to read, but actually want to plunk down cold hard cash to buy in hardcover–happens maybe at the most once a year. That’s not to say I don’t buy cookbooks for others, especially when it’s something I know they’ll really enjoy,…
Sign of Spring…or my (short) quest to bake the fluffiest hot cross buns
I say “short” quest because–and this doesn’t happen that often–it only took one try to achieve soft, fluffy Hot Cross Buns. Okay, technically it was actually two times because I had to chuck the first batch of dough due to dead yeast. Let this be a cautionary tale. Always store opened yeast (active dry or…
Feast of St. Paddy’s…or frolicking in a field of (sugar cookie) clovers
The only times I ever really pull out the green food coloring are Christmas and St. Patrick’s Day…and even then it’s with a modicum of restraint–so no green velvet cake (just picture for a moment the inside of one’s mouth after a eating a slice of that), no green bagels (we’re talking about an unnatural,…
Shopping List…or life in a snapshot
Recently I came across an article in Delicious UK–one of a handful of online food publications I subscribed to–which posed the intriguing question “Would you judge someone by their shopping list?” During lockdown, many people offered to shop for those who couldn’t, which in turn opened up a window into their private lives through their…
Healthy Resolutions…or eat more pancakes!
I know I said I don’t believe in making New Year’s resolutions…and for the most part I don’t. Rather, I subscribe to the “one step at a time,” make subtle lifestyle adjustments towards the bigger goal approach…particularly when it comes to diet and exercise. Like I said before, regimented calorie counting and restrictions don’t work…