I had beignets for the first time at the Cafe du Monde in New Orleans years ago. When we came back to nowhere Idaho -- where nobody had even heard of the things -- my mom regularly made them for us from a Louisiana tourist cookbook we'd gotten during our visit. They were good but pretty much nothing like the ones I'd had in the French Quarter, ( Read more... )

I'd been feeling really blah about food for several weeks -- perhaps a side effect of exhaustion, distraction and working six days a week in a kitchen -- when I made this. I'd finally come to the realization that I couldn't live solely on oranges, Indian takeaway and bastardized eggs benedict and probably shouldn't try. So in an attempt to ( Read more... )

I'm still not properly vegan, so it doesn't bother me that I don't know for certain if Jim Beam is vegan. But the best part of vegan baking is that so far it rarely requires things that I don't already have. I don't have to leave the house to have cake, and the batter mixes up in less than 10 minutes. And this one's so worth it ( Read more... )

I don't think I mentioned it before, but I've been off chemically, processed edible food-like substances long enough that actual brand-name Oreos taste nasty.

Mom: We had this Italian thing for dessert... misu-- tama-- marsca-- Mitsubishi.
Me: Mitsubishi is a Japanese car manufacturer.
Mom: Oh. Well, it was Italian.
Me: Tiramisu?
Mom: ... No, that wasn't it.
Me: Ladyfingers and mascarpone cheese?
Mom: Mmmm. Yeah!
Me: Tiramisu.
Mom: Yeah, that's it! It was good.

ME: Did you realize there's a book called The Sexual Politics of Meat: a Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory?
M.: I haf two booberries in my mouf ( Read more... )

I have hit the jackpot, my friends.

friggasfemme has gone Friggaswoman/Cancerian/generous-wife craaaazy today and I couldn't be happier or fatter. She has today, I am not joking, made an apple and white cheddar tart, pita bread from scratch, a crusty white French loaf, and is right now as I type in the kitchen making homemade tortillas.

( Read more... )

When I'm stressed, I bake. I don't remember the last time I actually baked, especially recreationally; it's all been sustenance cooking and not terribly thrilling. For various reasons we've been exploring variations on Rice and Beans for about a week and while it's good, it's not relaxing ( Read more... )

We got back into Edmonton only a couple of hours ago. The trip, which started around 9am yesterday morning, was largely uneventful: I broke the vegetarian habit for my aunt's biscuits with sausage gravy without serious repercussions; my knees survived; we made it to our bus on time, correctly tagged everything and didn't forget stuff anywhere. We ( Read more... )

I hardly knew thee ( Read more... )