from the Barefoot ContessaAnother amazing homemade delicacy from Astrid – creamy, salty Ricotta. The recipe comes from Ina Garten and is far easier than you might imagine.
It puts the store bought stuff to shame and will impress any guests or family.
from Simply RecipesFinally! An excellent banana bread recipe!
While I had some luck with a fancy lemon glazed coconut version a while back, I have struck out twice in the last year with banana bread.
I gave it one last chance tonight facing a few over ripe bananas and decided to wisely go to one of my favorite recipe sources, Simply Recipes this time.
Well, the third time’s a charm – this Basic Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips is sweet, moist, and pretty perfect.
The chocolate is my own addition, and I added a handful of chips after adding and mixing in the flour. You can adjust and add to your own taste (maybe some coconut, walnuts, cinnamon?)
It’s really simple and there’s no need for any mixers beyond your own hands and a wooden spoon.
from Playing House, Inspired by Momofuku Milk BarI was invited to attend a Charity Cookie Exchange (more on that later) and wanted to make something resembling one of my favorites: the Cornflake Cookie from Momofuku Milk Bar. I found a make at home version on the blog Making House.
While I can’t claim they were quite as divine as the rich, exquisite Momofuku ones, I was very pleased with the chewy mix of textures and tastes. I would make these again and can now that I have all the ingredients. (Nice to have mini marshmallows in the house – gives one an excuse to make hot cocoa).
While these are pretty easy to make I have one word of advise: refrigerate the dough before baking – the recipe says it’s optional, but even with hard cold dough, these babies spread like crazy so also make sure to leave room between cookies.
Traditional DrinkWe drank all the left over Horchata before I remembered to take a photo, so I must give credit for this lovely photo to Food People Want. I must give thanks and credit to Andriana and Krista (of radiogastronomy) for bringing homemade version of the delightful, refreshing, milky, spiced beverage to my party. It was actually my first encounter with the Latin drink, that matches perfectly with the spice of Mexican food. Versions of the drink go back to ancient times and have made their way all across the world.
from Martha StewartCan you imagine anything more refreshing and perfect for this lovely weather than Cucumber Limeade? It’s simple to make and wonderful!
I found these totally creepy and cool embroideries by Flying Haystacks randomly the other day and thought they'd be perfect to share with you during Halloween season. The artist began embroidering only a couple of years ago and sells these one-of-a kind oddities on Etsy. I posted some favorties on RC.
Strangely enough, my friend Tony, who rarely drinks, has developed a taste for Long Island Iced Tea: a cocktail that not only includes vodka and rum but tequila, gin and triple sec to boot.
On a recent visit, Tony ordered it in a beer bar, which resulted in a pint glass full of beer-bar-caliber booze, but at the home of our friend Shaun, who can occasionally be a bit of a booze snob, it meant nothing but top shelf all the way.
With rare vodka from Iceland and tequila from even further, the drink was rocking and I couldn't help but snap a photo of their counter full of potent potables that make up this crazy concoction. Funnily enough, the only ingredient that Shaun didn't have was Coke, so he substituted high grade cream soda, which added a yummy dash of vanilla to the drunkenness.
My friend Grace impresses me greatly with her home made from scratch treats that she often brings to office parties. The latest and greatest was a Tiramisu, which comprised of home made lady fingers for goodness sake!! (pictured).
It's not a dessert I tend to gravitate towards, but this was certianly the best I've had and I loved it. You can really taste the care that went into making it. She combined recipes from allrecipes and the Joy of Baking.
If you want to impress like Grace, take a page from her book and enroll in the Institute of Culinary Education.
When I came across this White Castle recipe on A Hamburger Today, I immediately forwarded it to kitchen-experimenter extraordinaire, Mike. Just a few days later he offered to make the teeny sliders for us and you can't imagine how excited I was!
I heart White Castles and, even if it grosses you out, I eat the frozen ones all the time – especially if I've had some booze before bothering about dinner.
This recipe mimics the flavor and consistency of the originals pretty well thanks to the inclusion of some less than common hamburger ingredients. Even the usually die hard, let's-do-it-right dudes of AHT couldn't stomach the idea of adding beef baby food to their burgers (wusses!), but Mike went all out and the results were great.
He used mini potato buns, which worked perfectly size-wise, and fried up some finely chopped onions to complete the clone. As the latter batches of onions browned and caramelized, the home-made burgers tasted even better than the original.
My recent summer drinks party brought out some breezy refreshing cocktails from my gracious friends. You heard about the Blood Orange Campari Spritzers that made Shaun smile all night, and this week I bring you the crisp and mellow Rosemary Lemonade Vodka Fizz that Astrid and Marcus provided.
This is a true summer drink that's just custom made for long hours on porch swings. It can be made virgin too, but ours was amped up with extra vodka (which you couldn't even taste – hello drunk time!).
This recipe, which was originally printed in Gourmet, has been a huge hit among the food blog community. The Bitten Word, Mac and Cheese Review, Dishing Up Delights, Food Photo Blog, and now yours truly are all fans.
Campari, a bright red bitter aperitif is comprised of a still top secret recipe and the taste is nearly impossible to describe. It's distinctively not sweet, though not particularly savory either and surprisingly refreshing, especially when it's paired with fresh squeezed blood oranges, a healthy splash of chilled white wine and topped with seltzer.
Friends and I recently enjoyed this very concoction to usher in the nicer weather and clink glasses over my very first taste of Italy's most favorite bitters.
I've mentioned before the huge perks of working with one of the best bakers I've ever met and I've got to say, Sarafina has outdone herself this time. From Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours cookbook she created a cake that brought back happy memories of my own wedding cake – a raspberry butter cream.
Greenspan is a chef who earns universal love and devotion from avid bakers and has even spawned a club wryly called Tuesdays with Dorie, a group of women who make her recipes and blog about it here.
In case I don't mention it enough, I have really great friends! Mike, who has been a huge blog help these last couple weeks, made my birthday-cake dreams come true (I heart vanilla/vanilla!) with a couple of cups of sugar and 2 sticks of butter topped with fresh strawberries and store-bought romantic red roses made of that weirdly yummy plasticy stuff.
Here's his recipe, which comes from Magnolia. Make sure to share the cake itself with as many people as you can, Jim and I felt like decadent fatties with the leftovers in our fridge, though it was fun to stretch my birthday treat (and birthday tummy) for a few more days.
My attempt at knitting last year resulted in a scarf too short and too fat to be of much use to anyone. That doesn't mean I didn't have a wonderful time knitting it, and Knit NY is part of the reason why. Part cafe, part store, you can sit with friends and knit while sipping Chai lattes.
There are three places in the city I have been to that do it well: Anyway Cafe (151 2nd Ave.); The Russian Vodka Room (265 W. 52nd St.); Aquavit (65 E. 55th St.) and I've also heard that Savalas (285 Bedford Ave, Brooklyn) serves an Oreo infused vodka, I can't recommend it until I've tried it, but I'll keep you posted.
Add vanilla ice cream and whipped cream.