Baked Caulifower

March 1, 2010 by Jessica | 1 Comment

I had to use up the leftover cauliflower from the Italian Style Cauliflower last week, but I wanted a recipe that was completely different. Too much of that white vegetable is boring! The first step? Make it in the oven instead of the stove. Oh, and I just got a steamer basket, so I wanted to use that too. If you like creamy foods, you’ll love this! It’s pretty much mac and cheese with cauliflower instead of pasta. It would probably be delicious with an assortment of vegetables, or with purple cauliflower and pasta together (again, too much white bores me).

Hamentaschen

February 26, 2010 by Jessica | 9 Comments

Every year we make the same hamentaschen recipe. Not because it’s the only one we know, but because it’s really the best. I can’t say I know where this recipe came from, all I know is that it has been photocopied many times, and the instructions are cut off on the side of the page. We’ve been able to figure out what to do. Oh, and the original recipe calls for margarine – yuck! We use butter instead. Continue reading …

Spicy Italian-Style Cauliflower

February 24, 2010 by Jessica | 6 Comments

I have never cooked cauliflower before. I didn’t even know if I liked it when it wasn’t breaded and fried. Turns out I do.

When I got the Williams-Sonoma Bride and Groom Cookbook and flipped through the pages, I knew I had to try their recipe for cauliflower. It seemed really easy and I already had most of the ingredients in my kitchen. I picked up a head of cauliflower on my way home from work and in a half hour, this dish was ready. Continue reading …

Mini Shells with Mushrooms

February 18, 2010 by Jessica | 2 Comments

I used to think I didn’t like mushrooms, but here I am posting yet another mushroom recipe. I’ll admit it, I hate raw mushrooms. But when cooked, they have an amazing flavor that goes really well with pasta.

On my birthday I went for dinner and ordered a pasta with portobello mushroom sauce. It was delicious, but way too creamy and rich. I decided to recreate the intense mushroom flavor in my own pasta dish, without adding loads of cream. Here’s what I came up with.

Cookies and Cream Gelato

February 15, 2010 by Jessica | Leave a comment

You didn’t think I was going to throw away all those biscotti crumbs, did you?

I know cookies and cream ice cream is typically made with oreo-like cookies, but this cookies and cream is much better than any you’ll find in a store. With creamy gelato and crunchy biscotti, you can’t get any better.

Gelato is Italian ice cream and is pretty similar to the ice cream we eat around here. It is typically slow churned and therefore less airy than ice cream and has less fat (cream) compared to the amount of milk. It’s really very good. This recipe yields a very rich egg-y custard. If you’re not into that, choose another vanilla ice cream recipe. I happen to think this is awesome. Continue reading …

Homemade Marshmallows

February 10, 2010 by Jessica | 10 Comments

I like making candy. I never really thought marshmallows were candy until I made them, but now I know they are. Making them involves cooking sugar and corn syrup to the “soft ball” stage, and anything that involves cooking sugar and using a thermometer is candy to me. The result is just very different than some candies we’re used to!

At first I thought making these would be hard. Plus I’ve never used gelatin before, but making marshmallows is surprisingly easy and very fast (except for the 4-hour waiting time while they set). Try it at your own risk – you’ll want to make them all the time. My favorite way to eat them is in hot chocolate. You can also add them to your ice cream, melt them on top of brownies, or make s’mores…the possibilities are endless. Did I mention they taste better than store bought ones? Continue reading …

Lottie Biscotti

February 1, 2010 by Jessica | 10 Comments

Although we found this recipe in a cookbook and properly cited it, we chose to take it down. We plan to share with you a new and equally delicious recipe for biscotti in the near future, so stay tuned! In the meantime, please enjoy our lovely photographs of the process. If you have any questions regarding this subject, feel free to email us or leave a comment.

I love biscotti, especially this biscotti. They sell them all over New York, but I’m always too cheap to buy it. So when my aunt gave me the recipe from one of the Lottie’s Kitchen cookbooks, I hung it up on the fridge, ready to bake it. Well, it took a few months to finally get started. Biscotti baking is a whole day activity, really. Especially if you only have two available baking sheets. Make sure you have enough time to make the dough, bake it off once, then cut them and bake them in batches. It took me about five hours, including clean up (well, I was working on a few other things at the same time and don’t have a dishwasher). Continue reading …

Pumpkin Ice Cream

January 27, 2010 by Jessica | 2 Comments

We love making ice cream, and have been making it for years (though you can’t really tell from this blog!) It’s pretty easy, and the results are delicious! Much better than anything you can get at the supermarket. You can also experiment with all kinds of flavors, which is how I got to pumpkin. Though pumpkin season is over, the idea of pumpkin ice cream really got to me, and when I realized I still had a can of pumpkin in my pantry, I decided that this would be the perfect flavor to share with you.

Baked Ziti with Roasted Vegetables

January 18, 2010 by Jessica | 3 Comments

This simple dish is a healthier version of mac and cheese. I adapted it from Giada’s version, but she uses way more cheese and adds sauce. I decided to omit the sauce and make it more like mac and cheese, less like baked ziti. Her recipe also calls for 4 mushrooms, which is nothing. I left them out, though they probably would have been a great addition to the meal. Next time I’ll definitely use them.

Flaky Pie or Tart Dough

January 15, 2010 by Jessica | 2 Comments

If you have a food processor, making pie crust is very easy. If not, it’s a little more difficult (but still not so hard). I have tried many different recipes, but prefer the ones that don’t use shortening (or lard, of course!), so when I found an all butter crust in The Art and Soul of Baking, I became hooked. I don’t use it all the time, but it’s definitely a page that I turn to often.