delicious dessert
We had a great dinner with some neighborhood friends on Friday. I whipped up this chocolate-nutella-strawberry tart with graham cracker crust based on two different recipes from epicurious.com. It was delish!
Labels: food
Sunday, March 07, 2010
We had a great dinner with some neighborhood friends on Friday. I whipped up this chocolate-nutella-strawberry tart with graham cracker crust based on two different recipes from epicurious.com. It was delish!
Wednesday, February 18, 2009
french toast cake
Last week we had some friends over for a little mid-week dinner party, so I decided to make Elena's Cinnamon Swirl Cake which turned out quite tasty. I did wish that I'd made the middle layer of brown sugar, chocolate chips and walnuts a little higher up. Still, the taste was great, and sour cream made it very moist. But I'm pretty sure her beautifully illustrated recipe looked even better.
Labels: food
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
party preparations
While in Syracuse for Christmas, we picked up two Dundee Craft Packs, which are awesome samplers of fine upstate beers. And if there's one thing I love, it's sampling. But now I'm also obsessed with the new label designs. This morning Tim walked into the kitchen while I was shooting photos and said, "Are you art directing our fridge?"
Turns out the company released the new vintage-feel packaging this summer, along with a pretty cool new site that lets you find your beer style. We always drank Honey Brown in college, since it was cheap and on tap in every bar. But it's hard to find HoBro in the NYC area. I find it a little sweet now. I guess, according to the Dundee site, I'm more of an Pale Ale girl now. Tim is to thank for that.
So we're stocked up and ready to go for New Years tonight with The Crew in JC.
Labels: food
Saturday, September 06, 2008
and at the end there was dessert... of course
For the last part of our brunch, I made this peach and almond cream tart with the fresh fruit above. I think it came out pretty well, and again there was none left. The finished tart looked like this.
Labels: food
Friday, September 05, 2008
going fast
The Pièce de résistance of course was the quiche. Again we used the produce from Adam's CSA. This one had red and orange bell pepper, white string beans and fresh eggs. And it was gone in a flash.
Labels: food
Thursday, September 04, 2008
summer salad
Fresh mixed greens, cucumber, cranberries, walnuts, feta, raspberry vinaigrette ... I'm realizing now how covered in flower the counter is in every shot.
Labels: food
Wednesday, September 03, 2008
cheese and herb scones
In addition to bagels from the place in our neighborhood (the best I've ever had) I made these same scones again... they came out dryer this time, but still quite tasty. I used sharp cheddar, fresh thyme and sage. Everyone raved about them, and yet there were a few left over for breakfast the next morning.
Labels: food
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
heirloom caprese
Our inspiration for the brunch menu came from two tasty sources. The first was the herbs my dad grew in his garden. The second was the amazing produce our friend Adam let us have from his CSA while he was out of town this weekend ... I walked right across the street and came back with two big bags of fruit, veggies and fresh eggs.
It was fun to create the dishes around what we'd been given. I knew right away what to do with the big bunch of heirloom tomatoes. Esposito's, my favorite neighborhood source for fresh mozzarella is closed for summer vacation, so I had to try another small Italian grocery story. I sliced up an orange, a red and a green tomato. Added in Dad's basil, olive oil, salt and pepper. I could have eaten the entire plate myself.
Labels: food
Monday, September 01, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
bruschetta is better
Bruschetta is definitely good when it's really fresh ... better when it's made with tomatoes, basil and oregano from your dad's garden ... and best of all when prepared for an impromptu Sunday afternoon cocktail party with friends. Yum.
Labels: food
Monday, May 05, 2008
cooling off
Made these yesterday morning to take to brunch. They came out perfectly spongy and quite most. Oh, and they were banana nut.
Labels: food
Sunday, April 27, 2008
take-off scones
The other weekend I watched a Barefoot Contessa episode where she made cheddar and dill scones. I had neither of those ingredients at the time, so I improvised and made rosemary and thyme scones with havarti and parmesan cheese. Quite good.
Labels: food
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
truffle shuffle
I had been planning for a while to make some hand-made candies for my mom and Grandma for Christmas. After some research, I cobbled together my own recipe based on ones I found here, here and here. I added Bailey's for some extra deliciousness. Poor Tim traipsed all over Manhattan to find me a melon baller, which ended up not working as expected, so I rolled each truffle by hand. Messy but effective.
Just before I made them, I also saw that Tracy at Shutterbean, my newest favorite site, had made some as well, and I borrowed the candy cane idea from her. I also dipped mine in cocoa powder, chopped white chocolate (food processor worked perfectly to turn it into tiny bits), chopped bittersweet chocolate (same stuff I used to make the ganache centers) and chopped toasted almonds.
I presented them in small Chinese food containers lined with waxed paper and tied with red and silver ribbons. The platter of extras I put out at Christmas dinner was wiped clean pretty quickly, making me think they tasted as good as they looked.
Labels: food
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
weekend in boston
We spent an awesome long weekend in Boston ... design exhibit at the ICA ... wandering the city with Tito ... beers at Kingston Station ... sushi with Tito, Mark and Christi ... the coolest bathroom sink any of us have seen ... Anna's birthday party complete with pinata and Darren ... Sophia that cat at the Roslindale B+B (aka Mark + Christi's apartment) ... more design exhibits, in the form of Blogorelli's rad typewriter collection ... homemade brunch with the best brown bread ... Paper Sourcing with Jenna, a true expert ... finally making it to Wagamama for a big bowl of nostalgia ... pizza and more beers in front of Jenna and Steve's fireplace, with Hazel the pup ... then taking the train home, so much nicer than the bus. Thanks friends!
Saturday, December 01, 2007
the head chef
I really like this shot of my mom on Thanksgiving before the big meal. Notice the open window in the background... the only time I ever remember it being warm enough to have them open at the end of November in Jersey!
This is the house that I grew up in, but the kitchen got redone after I moved out. I remember it more like this.
Tuesday, November 06, 2007
veggie sushi
When Jen gave us this awesome sushi set we decide to try making it ourselves. The rolls came out surprisingly well. We made all veggie versions, of course. The avocado and peanut was my favorite. Asparagus and cucumber were lovely too.
Labels: food
Thursday, June 21, 2007
cupcake sweetness
Made these for Darren's birthday. Just a store-bought chocolate cake mix bottom, but topped with Magnolia Bakery's Buttercream Frosting.
Labels: food
Monday, May 28, 2007
fifty-two hours in pittsburgh
So we went to Pittsburgh on a whim this weekend. Tom talked us into it and luckily Jackie didn't object to spending their first wedding anniversary with company. Jer drove us like a champ in the Prius. Tim and I drank too much beer and ate WAY too many fries. So all in all a fantastic time.
This was our first real meal at Primanti Brothers where tomatoes, cole slaw and french fries come on every sandwich. Holy heart attack.
Labels: food, friends, pittsburgh
