Sandwich Workshop: Roasted Onions

Sandwich Workshop, ReprisedLast week I blogged about how I had the honor and pleasure of teaching a Creative Sandwich Making Workshop at the Library, and this past week we enjoyed some of the leftovers which I want to share with you, inasmuch as that is possible in print? Okay, not exactly share, just share the recipe then.So here goes, Roasted Onions from Tom Colicchio’s ‘wichcraft recipe

What (Cupcake) Professionals Know

You can be pretty good at something, but I am convinced that you will never know as much as professionals,.    This was brought home to me this week because 1.)  my bathroom is getting renovated, and 2.) I was baking for the staff birthdays at the Library. I am a pretty good baker, but until I read the book The Complete Photo Guide to Cake Decorating by Autumn Carpenter, I didn't realize how

Feeling Crabby

Only ONE crab cake?  Ok, this must be the lunch platter!One of the easiest things to make, and make wonderfully well, is a good crab cake.  There are soooo many recipes out there, for various iterations of crab cakes, but after four consecutive Fridays of making crab cakes from different recipes, our family all agreed:  the simplest recipes are the best.The flavor of crab is so subtle and sweet,

Teaching/Learning/Cooking

Inspiration comes from the darndest places.  Was reading The Kitchen Counter Cooking School by Kathleen Flinn, a book we acquired in March of this year.  It was all about how a trained chef gave a series of free cooking classes to people she spotted at the food store purchasing pre-packaged and highly processed food.Things I knew but needed to be reminded of by Kathleen Flinn’s book:1.  Use up

A Scone by Any Other Name...

What is a scone anyway?    Coffee or bake shops showcase alluring looking scones bearing fruits, nuts, and spices, but which usually taste more like a mouthful of sawdust than anything else:  dry, flavorless and dense.  Good news!  If you make any of the scones from the book, Alice's Tea Cup, by Haley Fox and Lauren Fox, you will have a biscuit-y/muffin-y treat tasting better than any commercial

Cake Improv

Sometimes you can wing it, and sometimes you really want to have a couple of dress rehearsals before the real thing.  My daughter Kate's wedding is coming up in August and I am honored and excited that she asked me to bake her wedding cake.  I've made a few tiered wedding cakes before (how many?  let's see...more than 5 but less than 10...), but the last time I did so was several years ago, so I

Adventures in Fondant

I had the happy occasion to bake a cake for someone's baby shower (you know who you are!) today.   At first someone suggested that I make the "pregnant Mom" cake from Buddy Valastro's Baking with the Cake Boss, (funny but cute); but instead it was requested that I make something with a beach theme. How about a fondant covered sand pail cake with shells, sand dollars and a starfish in graham

Kindles and Cookies

As I wrote the title above, it occurred to me that I could be talking about either the "cookies" that are stored on your computer OR cookies that you eat...Still life with Kindle.OK, today, we're talking about edible cookies:  Almond Macaroons from the cookbook 500 Under 500, From 100 Calorie Snacks to 500 Calorie Entrees by Lynette Rohrer Shirk -  which I got from the South Brunswick Library's

Fish (Tacos) for Friday

Even if you're NOT an observer of no-meat-on Fridays during Lent, now's the perfect time to cook fish, especially on Friday.  At the end of the week, the markets are full of fish, resulting in three bonuses:  greater variety, lower prices and more turnover, hence fresher fish.See below for a great way to glorify fish tacos from Todd English's Cooking in Everyday English.   Don't be scared off by

Asparagus and Geometry

Does the size and shape of a food influence the way it tastes?  Most emphatically yes.Think of the taste of a shredded carrot salad versus munching on a whole carrot...or enjoying a piece of thinly sliced steak versus chowing down on a big hunk cut from a 1 1/2 inch thick slab.  Different textures, different taste experience.  This is the case with my favorite recipe this week, Raw Asparagus, Red

Shrimp Riddle

What is:  easy enough to make from ingredients you (could) have on hand, quick enough for a weeknight meal, but glorious enough for company?Answer:Pasta with Shrimp and Olive Sauce, from Todd English's new book, Cooking in Everyday English, The ABCs of Great Flavor at Home.I challenge you to try some of the recipes from this beautifully illustrated book, and not pronounce them delicious.  Todd

The Good, the Bad, and the Yummy: Halftime Favorites

What's better than watching the game with your buds and enjoying some great food too?  But how do you enjoy foods like unctuous, juicy, high calorie spareribs (the "bad") without looking like one of the linebackers?Take a small portion and fill up on side dishes like Asian Coleslaw, (the "good") and a big, green salad (also "good"!).  Have just a taste of dessert, but take a generous helping of

Something's Fishy Around Here

So my husband goes fishing whenever he can, and - sad but true, and the cause for much kidding - for the past two years he has not caught even a single keeper, much to my chagrin as a lover of fresh seafood.But lo and behold, the other day:  success!  Stripers, nice ones, caught off the coast in our friend's boat.  Was the secret that he took our youngest son along? Not sure.But even better, he

Chocolate Frosting and Food Snobs

Chocolate Frosting and Food SnobsMe? A food snob? Not really…I’ll admit, I do love the heirloom tomatoes and the baby white turnips and everything from the organic farm, but I’m not above using a cake mix in a pinch. But puh-lease do not use frosting from a can?  Ever. It’s just not worth it – the calories, the effort, anything! It tastes artificial, grainy and bad, and furthermore, it’s too soft

Wicked

You know the witch's face on the Wicked Broadway show poster?  That's pretty much the color of the green smoothie I made recently.  Was it wicked?  Why, no, it was rather good in fact.Having heard some buzz about green smoothies this summer I decided to try one myself.  I made my usual smoothie of a frozen banana, a handful of strawberries, a container of yogurt (any random flavor), and some OJ

Basically Mexican

The very first time I had Mexican food, I made it myself.  From scratch.  Including the tortillas.Why?  Because, at 17 years old and coming from a background where the only ethnic foods I ever ate were pierogis or pizza, I had no idea you could buy tortillas pre-made at the store.  So when one of my friends suggested that I make tacos for our group before we went out, I said okay.I found a taco

Good vs. Evil

The bad me craves chocolate.  The good me argues that dessert can be light and lower in calories.  Thus, this week’s recipes:  Dark Chocolate Gelato, and Lemon Sorbetto.  Both the good and bad news was that the Chocolate Gelato was so rich and dense and chocolately, it tasted like frozen chocolate ganache.  And the Lemon Sorbetto?  Divine - like the best fresh frozen lemonade.For me, the

Balance

Once again faced with a surfeit of tomatoes, I leafed through Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything for ideas and found an unassuming little recipe for Pasta all’Amatriciana. Who knew that pasta and just a few basic ingredients could transform into a fabulous dish that was so much more than the sum of its parts?  My daughter and I literally stopped talking just to eat and savor the meal – not a

Empty Plates

A few minutes after serving scoops of peach ice cream in sugar wafer bowls to my husband, daughter and son Thursday night, I looked up to see each one of them doing exactly the same thing:  trying to scrape up any last bits from completely empty plates.  I guess you liked it, I said.It all started two days ago.  I picked up a big basket of peaches from Pleasant Hill Farm in Jamesburg Wednesday

Celebrations from the Heart

Cookbooks are great, but making a recipe that you've made numerous times trumps that.  Today I made two desserts for a birthday celebration, Peach-Ginger Pie with Freshly Whipped Cream, from Rose Levy Beranbaum"s The Pie and Pastry Bible, and Chocolate Praline Cake, from Anne Byrn's The Cake Mix Doctor.   But my coworker Mike baked the baklava from memory, and how can you beat that? Mike and