February 20, 2010 · Filed under articles, savory stuff · Tagged bell pepper, dinner, easy, food, meat, onion, options, potato, recipe, spices
…That is the challenge that Brad and I made for ourselves. We’ve been on a little kick lately of getting a meat and a fresh veg once a week, without any preconceived ideas on what we want to do with it, and whipping it into something tasty through only a little forethought.
When I was in 4th grade, my dad was in one of his rare uncoupled phases. He was a cop with two kids who worked the night shift, so my older brother took care of both of us; he did the laundry, made sure I did my homework, and made dinner. And because it was simple to make, my dad often bought those packages of frozen hamburger patties for us to make for dinner. We started to get sick of hamburgers almost every night, until one of us spotted the big twirling spice rack on the counter and decided that it wasn’t just decoration. Since we were kids, the combinations of spices that we doused our patties with were peculiar …but invariably quite good, as long as we restricted ourselves to less than five spices. It really opened my eyes to the possibilities of spices.
In a way, that’s what Brad and I are doing. Except that we actually know what the spices taste like before throwing them together. And we didn’t actually use very many spices in this recipe. But it’s still the same sort of idea!
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February 12, 2010 · Filed under articles, tips and tricks · Tagged cheese, dessert, easy, food, molasses, options, recipe, vinegar
Wow, it’s been a long time since I’ve updated! Which doesn’t mean I haven’t been experimenting (I’ll let you know about the homemade mead that is sitting on my counter when I have the chance) but that I have been very very busy with graduate school, and most of my writing energy has been funneled therein.
But I stumbled across an article in the New York Times that is Experiments in Baking-style: the writer gave a chef couple a 19th century candy recipe and asked them to reinterpret it in their own way. I think it has an excellent explanation of the thought patterns that bring about new recipes (even for me, which is surprising since I have absolutely no formal training). It really demystifies what has been built up as something that only the Gordon Ramsey’s of the world can do, and reminds us that the only things we really need are taste buds and some imagination.
August 2, 2009 · Filed under muffins, pure experiments, spiced stuff, tips and tricks · Tagged banana, brown sugar, cinnamon, coconut milk, dessert, food, ginger, groats, honey, nutmeg, oats, options, recipe, ricotta
I’ve been wanting to get involved in the Royal Foodie Joust* (see the Foodie Blogroll thing on the right) for awhile but before this month either the ingredients were too precious for me to play around with or I just didn’t have the time. 
And I almost didn’t have the time this month – I forgot about it until 2 weeks ago, but we were busy preparing for a family trip, and then when we returned we were so busy catching back up on work that the week just flew past – but it kept floating around in the back of my mind, so I decided to try anyway, even if I couldn’t actually enter the contest. Luckily for me, the deadline was extended a few days, so today I gathered up my ingredients and all of the random possibilities that had been parading through my mind. The result totally surprised me! Read the rest of this entry »
June 20, 2009 · Filed under cobblers and pies, tips and tricks · Tagged cherry, dessert, food, fruit, holiday, options, recipe, special shape, updated
Once again, it has been awhile since I have baked anything. Since I will be starting grad school at the end of August, you might as well get used to it. *sigh*
But I was commissioned to bake dessert for tomorrow’s Father’s Day celebration, so I finally had a chance to try something I have been wanting to do for a couple of weeks: a cherry pie. Read the rest of this entry »
May 23, 2009 · Filed under tips and tricks
May has been a month non-conducive to baking. Thus, as you can see, the utter lack of updates until the corner of June is in sight. Read the rest of this entry »
April 19, 2009 · Filed under cookies · Tagged chocolate, chocolate chips, cookies, dessert, easy, food, Ovaltine, recipe
Brad requested chocolate chip cookies again. Having been reminded myself of how delicious they are, I couldn’t refuse. But I could do a little experiment with an ingredient I’ve been wanting to try.
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April 16, 2009 · Filed under ongoing experiments, stuff you don't eat, tips and tricks · Tagged birds, bugs, ducks, easy, essential oils, hairspray, mint, repellant, spring, wasps
Though the weather is still vacillating between winter-y and actual spring, there have been a few days of excellent sunshine. Brad and I have been able to take a few walks and even meander around the ponds of our apartment complex spinning tales to each other about exactly what the ducks and geese are up to. We even saw the first ducklings of the year today, a brood of 11 hatched by one of our favorite ducks, Tuffy.
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April 12, 2009 · Filed under pancakes, spiced stuff · Tagged banana, breakfast, cinnamon, easy, food, fruit, nutmeg, recipe
Brad and I both woke up late this morning. He’s the kind of person who wakes up at 7:30 on a regular basis without an alarm clock, while I’m the kind who could happily sleep 10 hours a night and still want a nap later, so when my alarm went off at 8:30 and he was still lying motionless next to me, I kept hitting snooze until he got up – at 9:30. If he’d gotten up earlier, I would have had to get up too so that he wouldn’t starve while waiting for the promised pancakes. It was lovely that both of us got to sleep in.
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April 11, 2009 · Filed under tips and tricks
When you’ve been forced to take an extended break from baking yummy sweets like I have, you just have to dive back in with something classic. So when I took a little time out today from practicing driving, making music, working on sales and tape construction, watching my niece’s games, and writing both blogposts that I’ve promised to others and blogposts that I’ve promised to myself, I decided to make chocolate chip cookies.
There is not a lot of experimentation to be done with chocolate chip cookies that hasn’t already been done.
(Plus, the kind I make come from a copyrighted recipe, no alterations. I don’t want anyone stealing my work so I won’t do that to anyone else either.)
Tomorrow, the plan is to stir it up a little again and make banana pancakes.
April 7, 2009 · Filed under ongoing experiments, plants/gardening, stuff you don't eat, tips and tricks · Tagged bugs, easy, essential oils, hairspray, mint, repellant, spring, wasps
Brad and I went for a walk this afternoon. It was a lovely warm day, with a few random bugs around.
But not a single dive-bombing wasp in sight.
Perhaps they are still in hiding or were killed off by the recent sudden dips in temperature but I am hopeful…
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