Shavuot, congratulations: you are the first Jewish holiday I am on time for! I was late for Purim and Passover, but you; you I managed to not be tardy for. I think it’s because you’re about dairy; all sorts of dairy, evidently, so it’s easy to both love you as a holiday and also find you easy to make food for. I can see why people look forward to celebrating you. Continue reading →
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Admittedly, this is not my best photo. Simple cakes get a raw deal in that they are so elegant and beautiful in real life, but often difficult (for me) to capture on film. I promise you, it is gorgeous in real life.
In my quest to learn more about Jewish holidays and the foods associated with them, I committed myself to making something for each (major? I’m a non-Jewish person, so I don’t know how to classify these) holiday. Since I am new to this, all of my offerings have been after the actual holiday has occurred. First, there was the great hamantaschen experiment for Purim; I got so caught up in oil-based versus butter-based hamantaschen and homemade jam fillings that those didn’t show up until the week after Purim. Now, here we are at my contribution for Passover, which has come and gone, and evidently we’re just days away from the holiday which falls 7 weeks after Passover, so it’s safe to say that I’m tardy in posting this one too. Please forgive me: I’ve decided to expand my Jewish food exploration to two years in the hopes that next year I’ll be ahead of schedule. Continue reading →
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Happy Easter, everyone! I hope all of you had a lovely, relaxing day, whether it was in the kitchen, on the nearest sofa, or outside hunting easter eggs in the yard. Whatever, as long as you had a great time. It was warm here – I almost said “unseasonably” due to the 39 feet of snow just last week, but no; the weather was completely seasonal, and sunny, so we were thrilled. So what did everyone do: lunch, brunch, or dinner? We typically do a brunch at Easter, and I try to do mix the dishes up each time. I decided to not muscle in with the camera when everything was set up; I could see the hunger on everyone’s faces, and I knew no one was waiting for me to take photos, so what you see here is after the demolition. Continue reading →
Hey you, with the leftover sprinkles from birthdays, christmas, random events, who has zero idea what to do with them. In your flurry of cupcake-decorating and cookie-bedazzling, you suddenly realized you have more sparkly goods than you do actual food.
This bark is for you.
It’s also perfect for New Year’s Eve, because all it takes is a little chocolate, some nuts, and whatever sprinkles, sparkles, or edible glitter you have hiding out in your pantry. Continue reading →
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There should be more photos. And yet, there are not.
Mostly because I decided, for most of the day, not to live behind a camera lens.
So no obsessive photos of food, or decorations, or table settings.
Just some presents…
meringue mushroom making…
retro ham preparation…
snowglobes by candlelight…
and our annual Bûche de Noël. We were a little wiped out between all our other festivities to make a real one, so this year’s was a cute little pound cake and some frosting.
You would have loved it.
I hope you had a wonderful holiday; the best holiday. See you very soon.
xox
shannon
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Ginger 2012: let’s get right to it, shall we?
We’ve been talking about this, but obviously I have entered Movita Beaucoup’s Ginger 2012 Competition. I have little to no experience making gingerbread houses. We used to do them every so often in school (with graham crackers and candy) but I haven’t ever made an actual one by myself. To summarize: I don’t know what I’m doing. Continue reading →
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I’ve never made biscotti. Not even one time. And I’m not sure why, because it seems like biscotti is one of those things that begs you to please, please make it from scratch and not judge it based on its store-bought, tasteless counterparts. Really, have you ever tasted a packaged biscotti and thought “wow; this has some massive flavor to it!” No, you haven’t. Fact: pre-packaged biscotti are devoid of flavor (which is why many of them are dipped in chocolate), dry like the Sahara, and possess no redeeming qualities whatsoever. I bet the real biscotti over in Italy is mortified that these little shards of blandness even exist. Continue reading →
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Cookie swaps? Fun. Cookie swaps with over 500 people scattered across the world? Agonizing, but in a fun way. There’s so many things to consider! Transport time, crumble factor, freshness window, packing methods; it’s all critical. Not to mention the apprehension of sending your beloved cookies to complete and utter (but nice) strangers. And not that I really have a reputation to speak of, but if I do, it was on the line because of the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2012. Continue reading →
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That’s right, people. This is your holiday gift from me to you. Much in the way that Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, and Perry Como gifted the world with timeless christmas albums.
Many of you have told me that you love looking at all the Momofuku Milk Bar cakes I’ve made on the blog this past year, but many of you seem to echo the same sentiment. You don’t want to buy cake rings or acetate strips. You don’t want to spend tons of time cutting and stacking cake layers. You sure as heck don’t want to waste freezer space for a half a day while it gets all melded together. And I understand that. Normal people with things to do may not feel the urge to spend hours on a cake. The whole idea of a layer cake is to make it for something special, too. So what if it’s just Tuesday and you want cake? It seems impractical to go to this much effort just for yourself, right? Even if it’s enormously delicious. Even if you really, really want to taste one of these cakes. Continue reading →
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seems like lately my kitchen smells like…
stalking = so much fun.