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Posts tagged ‘cooking’

Sep 5

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Birthday banana cream pie with (slightly) salted caramel and ganache

Today is my birthday, so I’m not going to say much. I have firm plans to do not much of anything for the rest of the afternoon, and I don’t want to be late.

Banana_cream_pie

But I do want to share with you, finally, the recipe for the banana cream pie I’ve been fixated on for the last half-dozen years or so. It’s deeply inspired by the one at Tartine in San Francisco – flaky pie crust, layers of caramel and dark chocolate, filled with pastry cream and fresh bananas, and topped with billowy whipped cream and chocolate shavings. But I’ve been adding my own touches here and there over the past years, finding the perfect recipes for each of the various elements, and it’s finally ready for sharing. Read more

Aug 22

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Marinated goat cheese, with endless variations

I’m always looking for good ways to make something special out of an everyday ingredient, especially as we enter our grad school budget phase of life, and marinated goat cheese is definitely one of those things. I’m a little obsessed.

Goat_cheese_ready Read more

Aug 19

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Dutch Baby breakfast pancake

Every once in a while a recipe comes across my kitchen that is so simple and so genius that I almost can’t believe it. In this case, it’s a matter of mixing together some eggs, flour, and milk, pouring it into a pan coated with a bit of melted butter, and sticking it in a hot oven. What you get is a fluffy, eggy pancake perfectly suited as a vehicle for whatever sort of toppings you want to put on it, just as you might with a flapjack or crêpe. Lemon juice and powdered sugar would be a pretty classic combination, but I have enjoyed plenty a Dutch Baby slice slathered with peanut butter and bananas, or blackberry jam and plain yogurt, or many other things. The fact that you can top it with pretty much anything, along with how easy and quick it is but impressive nonetheless, makes it a particularly good thing to have in your breakfast arsenal for when you have houseguests. You’re quite likely to have the ingredients on-hand anyway, along with tasty things to spread on it, and it won’t keep you at the stove making batch after batch like you might with pancakes.

Dutch_Baby_breakfast Read more

Aug 11

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Homemade Toby’s tofu paté

Homemade_Tobys

I’ve been nervous about this one for a while. I knew that someday I’d have this recipe to share with you, but I haven’t been sure how best to break the news. Tofu is kind of a touchy subject to broach, and with a name like “tofu paté” I can guarantee I’ve already turned away a good number of people. But as someone recently separated from my regular Toby’s source, I know this information might be valuable to a good number of people in need and I’m here to help.

Because there are many reasons people might be reading this post, I’ll give you some options:

  • If the word “Toby’s” really gets you going, read number 1.
  • If you don’t know about Toby’s but are potentially open to things made with tofu and the words “nutritional yeast” don’t make you go “what now?” read number 2.
  • If you don’t know about Toby’s and are really, really not into the idea of tofu … I apologize. Go here to distract yourself. Read more

Aug 9

Watermelon sorbet with rose, mint, and gin

Watermelon_sorbet

I realized recently that this move to Madison is really only the second time in my life that I’ve had a significant move. The first was moving to California for college. I’ve moved up and down to Oregon a few times, but always for a defined period of time, and even the first few times it was with someone who already knew the lay of the land. College was a pretty easy transition, complete with a summer camp-like few weeks of orientation and activities, but this is an entirely different beast. We have little idea of where even the simplest things are in town, and the list of administrative tasks to take care of (e.g. new driver’s licenses) is about a mile long. We sold or otherwise disposed of most of our household items when we left California last summer, meaning we’re starting almost from scratch in a lot of ways, and after five days of driving across the country we were left with mountains of boxes to unpack and an ever-changing collection of shopping lists and errands to run.

It’s been a little exhausting.

More than a little. Read more

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