Category: In the Kitchen
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Strawberry-Topped Pavlova
My grandma and grandpa used to have a narrow strip of garden that bridged the gap between their front yard and the cornfield that butted up to it. In it I’m sure they grew all kinds of vegetables and fruits, but all I remember were the strawberries. It’s hard to say whether this strip was…
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Strawberry Bourbon Shrub
There’s nothing like drinking something sweet and fizzy on a hot summer day. And so I’d like to recommend sipping on a shrub this weekend. Shrubs are drinking vinegars and seem to be gaining renewed attention and popularity since the rise of the refrigerator caused their original downfall. I’ve been reading about them for a…
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Coconut Nutella Frozen Yogurt
This summer is a hot one and the studio where I work is not well air-conditioned. This is fine. The beads of sweat that form on my brow while I write emails make me feel like I’m doing something much greater than sitting. It’s when I’m standing, cutting leather in the 3 pm sun that…
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Kitchen Staples
Being home from vacation is nice for a multitude of reasons, but mostly it has been a pleasure to resume our normal diet. I love food, too much sometimes. But as I get older I have become painfully aware that food doesn’t always love me back. I have realized that most dairy, cheeses and milk…
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The Art of Bread Making
This weekend one of my best friends, Patti (the Carbivore), took me to a bread making class. We went to Cook-au-vin in Chicago for a five-hour tour of scaling, kneading, cutting, shaping and scoring. We turned flour, water, yeast and salt into beautiful loaves and baguettes. With razor blades we scored the tops of each…
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Irish Soda Bread
Growing up at a summer camp I had access to the camp kitchen, and from the first moment I stepped foot in it I was fascinated. More than the stainless steel counters and over-sized equipment and canisters, I was fascinated by the cooks. All were women I could spend a day beside, watching their every…
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Guinness and Irish Cream Cupcakes
I wore no green, drank no beer and attended no parades in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day. But our friend made corned beef and invited us to dinner Saturday evening and I got a little carried away making some Irish-themed treats to accompany the meal. After avoiding sugars, grains and dairy for a few weeks,…
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Food Fermentation and Aging
Regan has been making sauerkraut lately. The reports of it as a digestive aid and immune builder outweighed the years of him being nauseated by the smell of it that he associates with childhood. Every few weeks he’ll chop up a cabbage with some carrots, lightly salt and place in a Ball jar, letting it…
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Rye and Molasses Black Bread
Lately I’ve been doing really well with having fewer grains, but every so often I see a recipe that haunts me until I make it. Heidi Swanson’s Black Bread was one of those recipes. She’s really said all there is to say about it. Her recipe is perfect and I hardly changed a thing, but…
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Date and Nut Truffles
Yeah. I know. Date and Nut Truffles isn’t a headline that grabs me either, but I’m trying really hard to be a little healthier so this is what we have to work with. Attempting to be healthier means I’m not baking bread as much. I’ve started saving great cookie, cake and brownie recipes to experiment…