I found this crescent jam and cheese cookies recipe on smitten kitchen, saved it in my inbox, and after months of waiting patiently (not really), I finally put it to good use!
I love the combination of sweet and salty. And anything involving cheese. The interesting tid bit is that the (farmers) cheese is in the dough.
My crescents are stuffed with apricot jam, petso and jack and a good amount with chocolate chips.
Enjoy the making-of photos!
B picked up some portobello mushrooms at the market, and I said "Oh, let's make portobello burgers."
last weekend, britt came to visit. she's the youngest of six and my lil sis. here we are with b digging into the chocolate-vanilla fro-yo at at zero zero served with ricotta donuts. sooo yum!
I believe highly in the superfood power of blueberries. Sweet, full of antioxidants and a tad tart, and oh so sexy blue inspired my making of mini blueberry muffins. I like to eat sweets in cute, bite-sized morsels. That way I can eat lots with little guilt. Thanks to smitten kitchen for the recipe.
I've treasured my set of mini ramekins for quite some time (thank you, Goodwill). And alas, I put them to good use. Here's my first and certainly not last, chocolate soufflé! I followed this NYT's Mark Bittman's video recipe, and was surprised by how simple the ingredients were. As easy as it was to put togehter, the tricky part is getting the soufflé to rise and keep afloat. When I took them out of the oven, they were floating high in the sky and oh so magical looking, and then as I scrambled to get the camera, they quickly deflated. My heart almost stopped then. Here, I was able to capture just a little poof. I guess I'll just have to keep giving them a go!
I think there's no better time to drink tea than when it's cold and rainy outside. And rain it did all last week in San Francisco. Earl grey, rooibos and chai are among my favorites, and preferably with a splash of soymilk. Check out this handmade ceramic owl mug I got in Truckee last weekend (isn't it cute?). When B and I were in Tahoe, our AirBandB host made us some banana oat muffins that were so good I had a huge craving for them weeks later. The blog honey & jam has a really recipe (actually, I think it's what our host, Leora followed) and beautiful earthy photos to go with them. I didn't thave a muffin tin on hand so I turned the recipe into breaad form with a change in oven temp and time. The oats gave this bread a hearty chew and moist with a tad of sweetness from the bananas, mm mm yummy.
It's a slow Monday. That means more time for talk about good food. B and I had a bunch of leftover veggies, and one morning as many mornings, we like to go all out for breakfast. Not go out, but go all out. So we reheated a smorgasbord of chopped-up veggies--onions, mushrooms, broccoli..even potatoes (really, whatever we had sitting in the fridge that wasn't going to make it through another week) on a lightly oiled pan. We then added in whisked-up eggs and sprinkled some shredded cheese (oh, yeah.) Lots of it. Halfway through we decided it was more of tortilla española than an omelet. We let the eggs cook all through the bottom until it was golden brown and set on top. We had the brilliant idea of letting it bake in the oven for a while. Twenty or so minutes go by and voila!
Light and fluffy eggs with tantalizing textures of all the veggies and gooeyness of the cheese. Spice it up with some buttons of siracha and a garnish of cilantro. Maybe it's more of a crustless quiche. Whatever it is, it's damn good.
This dish was inspired by my mama. I remember the day I told her I wasn't going to eat meat anymore. I was 16 and she nearly lost it. Thankfully, I made this announcement in public (at a supermarket, how fitting). It was the summer after completing sophomore year, and I had just returned from policy debate camp in Austin, Texas where I had reaffirmed some new values and was more sure than ever that I was going to lead a vegetarian lifestyle. She thought I was joking.
Does anyone have suggestions for where I can find tamarind paste in the city? B and I spent a good days worth of searching in Chinatown, bustling through the crowds, investigating the aisles of sauces, spices and pastes, talking to shop owners and clerks (or at least trying to given the many language barriers), and even getting ripped off! They charged me $1.15 for my tofu when the sign read 95 cents. When I tried to explain to the lady that she mischarged me, all I got was an astounding, "NO." Errr..ok. And it happened again at another market. Granted the produce is cheap, but still I'd much rather pay the advertised 45 cents/lb for my peaches than the 55 cents that was rung up!
