Tag

baking

in food

Donuts Are So In

I don’t quite understand how these food trends rise and fall. I mean donuts have been around forever. And they have always been widely regarded as delicious. But why are they suddenly “trendy”? Was I born before my time by appreciating donuts too early? I am not a trendsetter. I’m not even a trendfollower. I am a trendlaggard. I don’t notice that it’s trending until it’s on its way down. So it will be no surprise to you that donuts are apparently hip now. I myself only put the pieces together a few weeks ago.
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in food

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie: An Essential for Your Summer Cookout

Pie is my favorite food in the whole world. Out of all the pies, strawberry rhubarb is my favorite. Therefore, Strawberry Rhubarb Pie is my favorite food in the world. Now that we have that out of the way, let me explain why you must include this is any cookout spread. First of all, it’s delicious, and second of all, why not? It’s hard to argue with the logic of a madman so just make the pie and thank me later.
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in food, photography

Afternoon Tea and Scones

After living in London for six months, I finally appreciate scones. Not the dry crumbly triangles that americans pass for scones. But real scones. Which are actually more like biscuits. Not the english kind. The american kind. Let me start over.

The staple of a proper afternoon tea is a good scone with fresh clotted cream and jam. It’s always the simple things that get overlooked and underrated. But when I stumbled upon this recipe for homemade clotted cream, the craving came to me. And when I gave my Irish husband the pick of my next culinary experiment, he was instantly drawn to the scones. A match made in heaven.

All credit goes to the view from the great island and fifteen spatulas for the recipes but here are anecdotes from my experience.

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in diy

Extreme Makeover: KitchenAid Edition

At one time, I found the bright sunny yellow color of my KitchenAid standing mixer cute. I thought it was quirky, spunky, wacky, whimsical. Perhaps that was just a rationalization I told myself so I could get the 30% off that goes along with a discontinued color. I manufactured love for this color for quite a few years. But in my newfound DIY spirit, I took on the KitchenAid Makeover Project.

Cute isn’t exactly what I’m going for in the new house. Which is going to be done in TWO WEEKS! Classic, sophisticated, clean. Those are the words to describe the new kitchen. So the KitchenAid needed a makeover. I roughly followed the directions from Dwell Beautiful. And here follows my interpretation with the quite remarkable result!

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in food

Thousand Layer Chocolate Chip Cookies

Who doesn’t love a good chocolate chip cookie? The problem is there’s not just one kind of chocolate chip cookies. There aren’t even three kinds of chocolate chip cookies. There are probably thousands of different kinds that can range from chewy to crispy to salty to sweet. Some are nutty, some gooey, some cakey, some doughy, and the list goes on. The trouble is finding the right one.

I have tried several chocolate chip cookie recipes. One of the favorites I constantly go back to is David Lebovitz’s Salted Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies. Another one that I have had some success with is this Smitten Kitchen recipe. The point is that there are many and today I chose to attempt an extremely involved recipe. This particular recipe was from Butter and Brioche, a blog that I admire greatly both for the recipes and the beautiful styling of the photos.

The result was a crispy, thin, chocolately, and salty cookie. This cookie was on the rich side due to the heavy serving of both bittersweet and milk chocolate chunks. But as long as you have a big, cold, glass of milk, it hits the spot. I can also say that I have never before put an egg wash on a chocolate chip cookie, but it totally works in creating a crispy glaze over the top of the cookie. You can find this recipe here, but see below for my results.

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