It's 39 F out, wet and gray, and trick or treating starts in an hour. I feel sorry for all the parents who'll be escorting their kids around the neighborhood tonight, because it's only going to get chillier and more miserable after dark. :-/

Late last night, I went on a midnight baking spree and made challah (minus the raisins) for the first time ( Read more... )

Usually when I experiment in the kitchen, I try to make something fairly practical, but I couldn't resist these: homemade gummy candies. Super easy, and I used some cheap silicone molds from Ikea. A shallow bowl or baking tin lined with plastic wrap would probably work, too. I used pineapple jello mix and it was fine but I'll probably try a version ( Read more... )

The days are getting shorter and the nights are getting cooler, which always puts me in the mood for autumn food: stews and soups and things that simmer or braise a long time. This was a spur of the moment thing, after snagging a big bag of red bell peppers on clearance.

( Creamy Roasted Red Pepper Soup )

I never mean for the radio silences to stretch on so long, but that seems to be the way of things now. I keep my head down, try not to think too much, and try to get through the day. It's warm and humid out, with the occasional thunderstorm blowing through. I made Cherry Limeade popsicles as an antidote to summer and they were pretty good but maybe ( Read more... )

The recipe's been all over the internet for a few years now, but I hadn't tried Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce recipe yet. It looked too easy and kind of blah, to be honest. But the other day I was home, I had the ingredients, and pasta for dinner sounded good... Basically, this is what it is:

Marcella Hazan's Tomato Sauce(Serves 4. Unless you like ( Read more... )

*squee* This has been a much better week so far. My gift fic for the exchange: Of Abstruse Affections and Curious Consequences is up, and it's full of trickery, food pr0n, killer unicorns, historical geekery, giant (delicious) squid and every good thing. Thank you Mystery Author, it cheered me right up ( Read more... )

It's such a weird feeling, having a big project suddenly come to an end. I hardly know what to do with myself with all this free time... although it's never really free, is it. There's always something else I could/should be doing. For starters, my desk needs a thorough excavation again because I can see maybe five square inches of surface area on ( Read more... )

I don't often bake no-knead bread because while it's nice not to have to work the dough much, it requires hauling the cast iron dutch oven around and that sucker is heavy. But I've been wanting to experiment with add-ins and a new technique. ( Picture and revised recipe below the cut. )

Trying to write plotty fics is a bad idea when you've got a five minute attention span, because there'll come a point when you have to tie all the loose threads together and you'll find you can't even remember what the loose threads were, much less how to knot anything. This is one of the drawbacks of being a pantser. I do occasionally try to plot ( Read more... )

When the rain let up, I did a bit of stomping around the woods this past weekend. The peak of wildflower season has come and gone, and the trees are almost fully leafed out so everything was lush and green.


( Read more... )