Made it again tonight, adding the green onions and doubling the crab and pasta, and it was *still* too salty. Either the cellophane noodles need more salt (as opposed to the regular pasta I used,) my fish sauce is super-salty, or I should have followed my gut and decreased it. Here's tonight's variation ( Read more... )

Dungeness. If I had to choose between crab and chocolate, well, let's just say the likelihood of my head exploding is very high ( Read more... )

Christmas with J!, madbaker and bonacorsi was lovely. There was much laughter, fun, food, and wine. There was very little stress. (And what tiny bit there was, was caused by a bout of insomnia that nobody could do anything about.) Most relaxing Christmas ever. And the stockings were to die for! I have so much foodie spicy goodness to hunt up ideas for,and it ( Read more... )

Chewy Chocolate Coconut Pinwheels. I made these because I had coconut I needed to use up, and they say they keep well. They're sweet, chewy, chocolaty cookies. They a little too normal to be quite my cup of tea, but they should go over well. Like most pinwheel cookies, the dough goes through two stages of refrigeration, so they do take ( Read more... )

Finnish Rye Cookies, part two: Tastes like a basic butter cookie, only with rye flour. I actually like these, basic though they are. It might be nice to find a flavor that compliments the rye and brings it out a little more. One nice thing is that they don't have to be refrigerated before rolling out, so for a cut-out cookie, they're relatively ( Read more... )

It's after Thanksgiving, and time to bake! Several of the cookie experiments from last year are going into regular circulation. I have enough cookies that I suppose I could just make the same baker's dozen every holiday season, but where's the fun in that?

The new types I've tried so far this year are:

Maple Butternut Sugar Cookies, from The ( Read more... )

We had our nettles last night with dinner. I blanched them for 3 minutes (2 would have been enough,) sauteed them with some green garlic, and seasoned them with lime salt. Dang, but they were good.

Last night I went into our (dark) garage to get a plastic bag. I forgot I had a wooden hanger on the pantry shelves, and walked straight into it. I don't have a black eye this morning, but it's still a little swollen. So that's why I wasn't at any parties last night ;) Dave and I had a quiet evening with crab, West Wing, and each other, which ( Read more... )

Boar Hunt was a blast. Else let me head up team garnish in the kitchen. Decorating food is fun. Much eggnog was consumed ( Read more... )

Pistachio Cranberry Icebox Cookies. I didn't change a thing.

Mexican Chocolate Cherry Rounds. What I changed: used a dried cherry on the top instead of a candied one.

Cardamom Butter Squares. What I changed: used freshly-ground cardamom and doubled the amount. Skipped the espresso icing entirely, instead drizzled with a (melted) dark ( Read more... )