real recipes. made up people, places, and things
Five ingredients, twenty minutes, tender, flavorful. These pickle brine biscuits, lined with a green layer of pesto, just happen to be vegan. I’ve been happy to test and re-test this recipe over the last few days. These make an amazing lid for egg salad (or its faux egg alternative if vegan is your thing). My […]
Egg rolls so packed with flavor you don’t need a dipping sauce- making them the perfect party snack. Fried or baked, these crispy egg rolls are jam-packed with green vegetables and, wait for it, here’s the genius part, a secret cream cheese layer that adds flavor and structure. Plus a prosciutto bonus round. Your guests […]
Tajin Chile Lime Seasoning and Chocolate Marbled Banana Bread: whew that’s a mouthful. I’m addicted to this not too sweet combination of dark chocolate swirled with a subtly spiced banana batter, the result is tender and flavorful without veering too far into dessert territory. Even the Mr. who, maddeningly, can take or leave most desserts […]
An easy creamy stove top macaroni and cheese studded with a healthy serving of spring greens that comes together in less than 15 minutes. Bowl optional. For a lighter slightly more grown up, but equally quick, take on peas and pasta you might want to try my summer peas and angel hair pasta This is not […]
New England style hot dog or lobster rolls made without a specialty hot dog bun pan: a little bit classic buttery top loading New England style bun, a little bit deliciously soft yet structured Japanese milk bread. Stuff it with lobster, shrimp salad, or a dog. want something equally soft and squishy but a little […]
Guinness Irish Stout and Mushroom Gravy Another recipe that is not really a recipe. More of a guideline, a picture map that encourages substitution and experimentation. It is just gravy after all. Initially the Guinness was the only liquid but when I re-heated it this morning for biscuits and gravy I added some milk because […]
Mizuna Citrus Salad w/ avocado and jicama A simple refreshing salad, lightly dressed, and studded with tropical flavors and textures. Do you remember when there were only three brands of tequila and three kinds of greens? Now I can barely keep up. Yes kids ,there was a time when Patron and Arugula were considered fancy/exotic/unusual. […]
Mango Colada with banana and grapefruit It’s not even that warm today but just seeing temperatures above sixty in the forecast has me in a mad scramble for drinks laden with rum and blended with tropical fruit. Bring on the mango, the banana. I’m ready for sun naps and warm toes. Even without the […]
Not too sweet and loaded with ‘wild’ blueberries these muffins, if I’m honest, are really just my favorite cornmeal pancakes made into easily storable/snackable muffin form. random aside: After watching the bit about NRATV on Last Night Tonight with John Oliver, every time I write the word muffin I think of this. The muffin part […]
A simple side, delicious with coconut curry seafood chowder or with any asian inspired main course. This asparagus came from Mexico because by February buying local kale and collards has become repetitive, boring, blah. I’m ready for spring, for asparagus, strawberries, tulips. For a few days it seemed spring was just around the corner, short […]
A bright coconut curry seafood stew with the added comforts of a hearty new england clam chowder. I plan our meals around what’s on sale at the supermarket this week, read the fliers and plot things out. This week- rockfish, asparagus (I try to buy local but right around now I reach maximum tolerance for kale), […]
not your momma’s meyer lemon amaretto sour Amaretto sours are one of those drinks with “origin unknown” stamped across their back side. I’ve never been able to decide whether this is because it’s a basic variation of a classic or if the inventor is ashamed and unwilling to take credit. Given that the amaretto sour […]
Bright citrus notes, bold hibiscus color and zest. These soft and sticky buns are made smaller so there’s more of them to share. A warm tropic treat for dark winter days. Citrus Sticky Buns with Hibiscus Cream Cheese Glaze just barely adapted from the Sticky Lemon Rolls recipe on the Kitchn you will need one […]
In an effort to stay relevant I made the most instagrammed cookie of the past year into a heart shape- the week before valentine’s day! In other breaking news, this morning we had avocado toast (I know avocado on toast, crazy right?) with an egg on it. The part of me that saw Nirvana in […]
Just in case you are feeling snack food deprived and/or all this Super Bowl hype has left you with an unquenchable craving for all things Buffalo then these are the sliders that you’re looking for. They are saucy but, surprisingly, not sloppy and easily adaptable to personal preference: less blue cheese, more hot sauce, whole […]
Warm up with a bowl of chili, earthy yet clean, rich but not heavy. Just the right spice and delicious with cornbread. Welcome to the shortest/longest month where winter lingers and spring teases (at least here in the pacific northwest). Before I baked February was almost unbearable but now I take comfort in slow […]
Cast Iron Savory Baked Oats- the bacon edition If the original was the healthy weekday edition this is the decadent weekend edition: creamy, bacon laden, and topped with a generous layer of sharp cheddar cheese. I retained all my favorite aspects of the first savory cast iron oatmeal- one pan! a bright pop of pickled […]
Have you seen the headlines that the world will be without chocolate by 2050? This is worrisome but I won’t panic until they make the same dire prediction about vanilla. Vanilla gives me comfort, its my hug after a hard day, my kitten video, my memory palace. It takes an ordinary grapefruit and soda and […]
Savory Cast Iron Oatmeal with pickled egg, avocado and kale I had this idea to make a super bowl smoothie bowl: beautifully arranged berries (raspberry, blueberries) battling it out against an artful splash of rich green kale. I’ve never made a smoothie bowl, I’ve made a smoothie, I’ve topped plain yogurt with things, but these […]
A refreshing and subtly herbal winter gin gimlet with fresh lime and rosemary. “We sat in the corner bar at Victor’s and drank gimlets. ‘They don’t know how to make them here,’ he said. What they call a gimlet is just some lime or lemon juice and gin with a dash of sugar and bitters. […]
Deliciously dilly yet soft and tender these dill pickle burger buns add a layer of flavor to any burger or sandwich. The only thing I might change next time is to add more pickles. Who knew? Pickle humor is a thing. While there are far too many puns involving “dill” there are also an array of […]
Journey to the underworld with me where we will sip the juice of fruit from warmer climes and wait for spring. Worry not, it is hell, so there is Facebook and CrossFit and Persephone’s Smash: pomegranate mint mocktail. I was going to make this a booze-or-not-tail but when all the muddling was done I was enjoying […]
Mister & Missus C: Biscuit Croque Monsieur & Madame Happy days are here again. This brief glorious week where there are still leftovers and not yet new years resolutions. It seems there must be a point at which you can no longer call a variation on something by the original name, especially when that something […]
The Journey To and From: A holiday rum negroni for our inner surfer Do you know how many weird and not terrible but not particularly inspiring Campari drinks I had to consume just to get one worth posting? At last I found it. Something warming but not warm, something holiday but not heavy, a drink to […]
Up your luck in the new year by adding greens. If the only collards you’ve ever had have been thick cut and slow stewed it my come as a surprise that they are also delicious barely cooked or even raw, you don’t even have to add pork. That’s right these are vegan and like all […]
I’m such a bitch sometimes- most times. But I feel bad about it later, which, I suppose, makes me an insecure bitch. For example: I made these cookies for a Greek themed dinner party. When we arrived I set them on the table one of the other guests (who is also my friend) exclaimed “Oh, […]
Snow on Sand: Hot Coffee Cocktail w/rum, orange liqueur, and amaretto cream Naming drinks is almost as hard as coming up with them. I began with all that follows the colon: Hot Coffee Cocktail w/rum, orange liqueur, and amaretto cream. But the bartender in me rebelled, the story writer- who can’t come up with a […]
For those of us who prefer family holidays spent solo (or duo) snuggled up watching the storms roll in at the beach, I bring you this not made for kids, scaled down serving size, tangy, beery, deliciously creamy, mac (or penne as the case may be) and cheese. Made with sharp cheddar cheese, labneh (see […]
Spiced Apple Bundt Cake w/maple cream cheese frosting I love apple pie, and pumpkin pie (and key lime pie, blueberry pie, cherry pie, and pie! pie! pie!) but as the time of leftovers approaches I’ve come to appreciate a dessert that gets better on the second day and is still really good on days three […]
It’s the end of October but even though I’m wearing a wooly hat indoors to chase the chill I can still find bags of peppers (both sweet and hot) at my favorite stand at the farmers’ market. And so, like a fat squirrel foraging for winter, I continue to stuff my pack with pecks of […]
Imagine a fall day when the leaves have suddenly turned and the sky is blue and the ground is a blanket of gold dappled with orange and red. Imagine bread both familiar and exotic, a soft loaf with the nutty hint of sesame, the golden glow of turmeric, a little spice, a little comfort. […]
Rich, thick, and strong- balanced between booze, sweet and spicy. This little morsel is the perfect stormy day companion. This not, however, the sort of ‘recipe’ you should try if you want to get things done. Heat+Chocolate+Booze=snuggle up on the couch and listen to the rain smack against the window panes, light a fire, put […]
Do you want a commentary about grits or blue cheese? How much I love savory grits? How in NYC I would describe grits as southern polenta and when I worked in Arizona I told people polenta was Italian grits? Nah?! I thought not. Accompaniments coming soon. Creamy Blue Cheese Grits ingredients 2 cups […]
Scars and Stains Blackberry brambles, thorned arches. Dark clusters of berries, smaller and seedier than their domesticated cousins. But so much better, worth dodging webs and thorns. Free, if you count stains and scratches as rewards. Yesterday we went blackberry picking in a friends backyard. Forty five minutes in the dimming August light to bring […]
Tea (all sorts but especially Earl Grey and Chai) reminds me of the high desert, specifically Boulder Colorado, where the Rocky Mountains stop (or begin) in a glorious display of sandstone rocks that jut through the trees and reach towards the sky. The smell of spices— ginger, clove, cinnamon— merge in my memories with pine […]
