In this journal I share a lot of the recipes I find online or develop myself. Since people often ask me for pointers to those, here's an index, dated to stay at the top of the page:

( Click for Links to Recipe Entries )

- Tower of Cheese - I'd do this again, but only make one tower (probably the raclette) and get it on the table faster, so the cheese would be even meltier

- gougeres with and without black truffle

- Benton's Country Ham w/red-eye mayo - I wish we'd had the time to slice more of this

- mushroom puff pastry bites - These were one of the ( Read more... )

Mostly for my own notes, here is the menu for our Christmas Brunch:

yogurt/granola parfait
smoked fish platter with dill cream sauce
French toast with strawberry sauce
baked eggs with mushrooms & spinach
Benton's Tennessee Country Smoked Ham & red-eye mayo
omelet slices
sliced cheddar cheese
English muffins
tater tots with sriracha aioli
Brussels ( Read more... )

Lately, Sundays have become especially busy. If I only have two or three events on my calendar for a Sunday, that's a pretty easy-going day--sometimes there are five. Perhaps because of that, today felt only moderately busy ( Read more... )

This year our guests had a wide range of dietary needs (no dairy, gluten-free, vegan, etc.) so I ended up making smaller quantities of more dishes than I usually attempt. All of them were tasty, so I wanted to note the recipes for future reference ( Read more... )

I made dinner tonight for a couple of vegan friends (one of whom is also gluten free). They seemed to like it, so I'm keeping notes:

Tuscan Vegetable Soup - I played around with this recipe--didn't use zucchini, added some tamari for increased umami, pureed everything and then threw in a few handfuls of gluten-free elbows.

Vegan Caesar - I ( Read more... )

I'm closing up tabs and wanted to note that after Thanksgiving I made the best stock of my life, using this recipe. I used it to make the soup that's also on that page, using noodles instead of rice or barley, at Alice's request. The mushrooms and marjoram gave it a very different flavor than usual and it was a very hearty, wintery soup. I've ( Read more... )

I've made Jason Santos' pastrami bolognese twice now. The recipe calls for FOUR POUNDS of pastrami, which seemed just way too much, so the first time I made it, I got a pound of pastrami and quartered the recipe. The flavor was great, but almost too meaty, so I decided the next time I'd halve the meat and add mushrooms. Unfortunately, I didn't ( Read more... )

The first (and last) time I tried to make caramel, I failed miserably. It kept boiling over and getting burnt and generally not turning into anything useful. So it was with trepidation, having decided to make a pear-caramel upside down cake that I set about trying again. It took a lot longer than the recipe thought it would, but look!


( Read more... )

Occasionally I wonder why I read The Amateur Gourmet, especially now that he's living in LA. And then he posts a totally game-changing recipe like this one for Roasted Hamburgers. So easy, so much less mess than any other method, scalable, and delicious! Hamburgers have been a rare occurrence in our household, but I think that may be changing ( Read more... )