Halloween pudding with lavender, sea salt and chocolate cobwebs

As berries and stone fruits disappear for the season, I find myself switching back and forth from cravings for apple and pear desserts, to anything with dark, dark chocolate.  I’ve been having fun trying out recipes from the new Kinfolk Table cookbook and over the weekend, I experimented with their recipe for chocolate pudding with sea salt and lavender. The Kinfolk recipe is simple…

Detroit corn cakes

This weekend we had friends over to watch game three of the World Series and eat chili.  It was a pretty exciting game and we were on our feet numerous times, cheering for our team or making our way to the kitchen for seconds. Making chili is the Mister’s department, but I do have a go-to recipe for fried corn cakes.  A few years…

Braided apple pastry

Some weekends are too lazy for recipes.   Coffee, naps, and cuddling are oh so tempting as the days get chillier.  These are the times when its handy to have a few puff pastry sheets tucked away in your freezer.  Its so easy to make puff pastry beautiful, and it can be filled with just about anything, savory or sweet. This pastry was something I…

Fall salad from The Kinfolk Table

Just in time for the weekend, my copies of The Kinfolk Table and What to Cook and How to Cook It arrived in the mail.  At different times over the weekend, The Mister and I could each be found with a mug of tea or coffee, slowly sifting through the pages, bookmarking the ones we wanted to try right away.  Both books, while very…

Rainy day plum cake

My mother came to visit for a few rainy and chilly days.  Most years we see each other only two or three times, usually in the hustle and bustle of holidays or family celebrations, when there is little time for unhurried cooking or conversation.  We brewed large amounts of coffee and watched favorite old movies.  When the rain died down to a drizzle we…

Dark chocolate cake

My mother has been visiting and we decided to have half a dozen friends over for a little dinner party.  It had been raining for days, and the damp and chill gave us the perfect excuse to make the first squash soup of the season.  After so much summer traveling, it felt good to gather our dear ones around the table and warm our…

Bad Day, Good Cheese

A drink can take the edge off a bad day, but a good cheese can turn it in the other direction.  Recently, after a rough day at work, I was running errands downtown and stopped in at Cowgirl Creamery.   I told the lady behind that counter I was in the mood for something soft but on the stinkier side.  She smiled, cut a sample…

Wanderings: Eating in Istanbul

Nothing beats traveling to a city where you have close friends who can show you around town and take you to all the best restaurants that only the locals know about.  A guided food tour is the next best thing. On the recommendation of a colleague who had recently traveled to Turkey, we signed up for a culinary walk with Istanbul Eats.  Our guide,…

Nutella banana bread

The mister and I have very different views on Nutella.  Unlike me, he doesn’t find a multitude of ways to sneak it into various sandwiches (peanut butter/banana/nutella, anyone?) or desserts and sometimes, when I’m oohing and aahing over some new recipe he will wrinkle his nose and remind me that it isn’t really his taste.  My colleagues, on the other hand, love Nutella, and…

Pear tart

Everyone spends all of autumn talking about apples, but right now, pears and I are having a moment.  Earlier this week I made caramelized pears.  Amazing.  With gelato.  More amazing.  I had a few of those caramelized pears left over and thought I might try using them instead of apples in a simple tart. I’ve made Deb’s apple mosaic tart before (with apples), and…

Caramelized pears with vanilla and lemon

Last Sunday we had friends over for dinner and they showed up on our doorstep with baklava and a few ripe Chinese pears.  After dinner we served the baklava with a ice cream, raspberries, and slices of pear.  They’ve been on my mind ever since. This weekend was unseasonably warm and, when sorting through recipes, poaching pears with red wine seemed better suited for…

Rosemary olive oil cake

A few years ago I lived in a large, beautiful group house with several wonderful housemates.  We had an incredible kitchen in which we spent all our time, laughing and cooking and sharing food.  There were a number of cookbooks left in the kitchen by the landlords, journalists who traveled most of the time, and one of the roommates became obsessed with a recipe…

Making Herb Salt

Living in a crowded city, we feel very lucky to have an apartment with a sizable balcony and we take advantage of the outdoor space by making it as lush and green as possible in the warmer months.  Over the last few years, we’ve learned that while tomato plants don’t love our space, herbs thrive and we cram in as many varieties as possible. …

Pizza with figs, Roquefort, and caramelized onions

All week long I’ve had figs on my mind.  I spent hours pouring over new recipes to try, and daydreaming ideas to improve old favorites.  Figs come twice a year, but are at their best in the later summer and early fall.  To me they are the perfect kind of sweet, not too sugary, not too tart, the way I imagined nectar tasted to…

Breakfast radishes

There is a time every year, when I’ve read one too many depressing pretentious books by hot young authors, that I put them all away with a dissatisfied grumble and allow myself to drift off in a series of what I call “French food memoirs.”  Typically penned by Americans or Brits living in France or remembering France, they hit just the right combination of…

Tomato Galette

There was a point in learning to cook when I went from a frustrated picky eater trying to make food that tasted the way I wanted, to wanting to make simple, beautiful food to share with friends and family.   From the first time I saw them, galettes took my breath away, seeming somehow chic and rustic at the same time. As autumn makes…

Veg, veg and more veg (with brown rice and an egg)

Lots of travel usually means lots of meat and carbs in my diet, and as delightful as that is, when I get home I usually just want to detox on a giant pile of vegetables.  A quick stir fry over brown rice has become our go-to for a filling, veg-centric meal.  We try to keep brown rice in stock in our apartment, so whenever…

A slight shift: To and Fromage

Over the cheese course at dinner on Saturday, the mister joked that it was a shame I hadn’t called my blog “to and fro….mage.”  I think my face immediately fell, because, honestly, it was the perfect name.  Why couldn’t he have been so clever twelve days ago?  Most likely we were eating cheese when I mentioned that I was going to try a blog…

Ready for Autumn

I always get a little sad as the last few weeks of summer produce make their way into the farmer’s market in September.  I find myself thinking, “Blueberries won’t taste this good for another year” or “Will this be the last of the summer melons?”  And yet, the fall produce appears and I get excited about the amazing things I will get to eat…

Summer tomatoes with baked polenta

Polenta is an amazing vehicle for so many vegetables.  In the summer, I like to roast cherry tomatoes, corn, and mushrooms in the oven and serve over baked polenta. The Mister used to go through the labor intensive process of making polenta on the stovetop, but then we found Joy the Baker‘s amazing baked polenta recipe and haven’t looked back.  Its so amazingly simple…

Blueberry Plum Upside-Down Cake

Summer fruits seem to be peaking.  Peaches are heaven right now and blueberries are just about gone.  I’m wishing for another slice of this blueberry plum upside down cake.  I’m more of a savory person, than sweet tooth, so desserts that go easy on sugar are just right for me.  I believe this recipe came from Martha Stewart.