Adventures in Eclectic Home Cooking
Posted in Food Features, Recipes, Technique on Feb 21st, 2010
What do you do when you become to busy to cook consistently? Hopefully, you have the foresight to stock your freezer with reheatable home cooked items. Happily I did manage to have a sense that things were going to get hectic around here and I was able to pack the freezer with these tasty little [...]
Posted in Food Features, Recipes, Technique on Jan 4th, 2010
Half sour pickles, sometimes called “new pickles”, weren’t my favorite growing up. They were overlooked in the quest for the most lip-puckering sour garlic pickles. As my taste buds matured, however, I came to appreciate the more delicate saltiness of a good half sour pickle. From what I’ve noticed, half sours are made from very [...]
Posted in Food Features, Pondering on Dec 16th, 2009
About six weeks ago, we were gifted a so-called “Amish Cinnamon Bread” yeast starter in a zip-top bag that came along with a somewhat cryptic-sounding recipe. Due to my affinity for baking, I decided to take charge of the project. After waiting ten days and “mushing” the bag everyday, it eventually yielded what it promised [...]
Posted in Guilty Pleasures, Recipes on Dec 11th, 2009
I had a terrible craving for eggs this week. Not just any eggs though. I wanted deviled eggs… and a lot of them. A normal person would take that as a sign and just make them – I mean, why mess with a perfect thing, right? Not me. I’m far too lazy for that. To [...]
Posted in Food Features, Recipes, Technique on Dec 5th, 2009
Of the three kinds of cucumber pickles I experimented with since the summer, the most successful were the “bread and butter” pickles. Because of their sweetness, these usually aren’t on my crave list. When I think of bread and butter pickles, I think of almost-neon manufactured, sickly sweet, acidic spears that seem to last indefinitely [...]
Posted in Pondering on Nov 20th, 2009
I’ve mentioned before how I have more of a salt-tooth than a sweet one. There’s no better example of this than my childhood favorite: garlic cucumber deli pickles. The saltier, the more sour and garlicky, the better. Ask my mom, she’ll tell you that pickles were pretty much a food group in my diet as [...]
Jen bought a waffle iron for me when I finished writing my undergraduate thesis, which was a horrid affair. While the gesture was sweet, I knew it was an appliance I wouldn’t use much. Ever since though, she’s tried to convince me that it’s not a dreaded “uni-tasker” by making me treats with it that [...]
Posted in Food Features on Oct 25th, 2009
Move over Nutella, I’ve found a chocolate spread that’s richer, thicker, cheaper and easier to get my hands on. I’m not sure I’ll ever look back.
Posted in Food Features on Oct 4th, 2009
For me, fall means apple picking. And apple picking means apple pies! The minute the weather turned crisp, we grabbed some friends and headed upstate to pick as many apples as we could carry. Empires and Jonagolds were ripe in abundance so we filled up mostly on those. Empires have a pure white flesh and [...]
Posted in Recipes on Jul 19th, 2009
Everyone at work has been trying to shake off the tense, busy months we just came out of. Since Iron Chef was such a hit, someone decided we should have a brownie throwdown. I wasn’t sure if I was going to do it, since sweets aren’t really my thing, but I just happened to be [...]
