Every time I walk past the lingonberry jam at an IKEA store, I make some kind of joke about "Klingonberry jam", and then I try to figure out what would be in it. This time, I remembered that we do have something in our spice drawer that's actually labeled as Klingon - Auntie Arwen's Klingon-in-the-alley hot jerk seasoningYes, I've been trying to ( Read more... )

It's too darn hot, but I need a substantial snack. I discovered a while ago that if you puree frozen things without thawing them first, you get - as long as what you are starting with is mostly water, as most non-dehydrated foods are - a substance similar in texture to sorbet. This works great with fruit, but it also works well, although the ( Read more... )

fiddledragon: "I want chocolate! We don't have any chocolate."

Me: "I could get you a canister of unsweetened baking cocoa and a spoon?"

fiddledragon: (paraphrasing) "Um, no."

Me: "I could mix it with sugar..."

fiddledragon: "Or honey..."

Way too long later...I've discovered a new chocolate substance. It has a dough-like consistency, intermediate between a ganache and a ( Read more... )

Dear friends,

The month of Kislev is upon us, and that means that Chanukah is coming, and with it, in commemoration of the miracle of the oil, my annual excursion into the art of deep-frying. Last year, there was far too much food for two people to eat, and there easily could have been even more, so this year, you are invited to my first-ever ( Read more... )

Oil. Lots of oil. The oil lasted for eight days, so we celebrate with oil - latkes, sufganiyot, you name it. In this season, we recall the saving power of our G!d by deep-frying.

The altar of fire in our home is the gas stove, of course, and its most sacred implement the cast-iron wok, seasoned with care and renowned for its power and ( Read more... )

One of these things is not like the others.


( Read more... )

coconut milkDon't be fooled - just because it's squeezed from a "fruit" (a nut, really) doesn't mean it's not rich in life-enhancing saturated fat. But, oh, so luscious ( Read more... )

After a brief visit, fiddledragon is now home. She did not go home at the end of said visit - it simply stopped being a visit. The new lease with both of our names on it, for us to sign and return, arrived in the mail today. We are very happy and slightly nervous about living together.

Last weekend, fiddledragon's father drove up from DC with a vanful of her stuff. ( Read more... )

I took fiddledragon to Morimoto last night as a graduation present. I had been to Morimoto before, for a snack, but I had been waiting for a special occasion that would justify the full Morimoto experience. We ordered the omakase (tasting menu), a parade of mouth-watering small dishes, each perfect ( Read more... )

Because I'm just that kind of pagan

The hazelnut thing follows a ritual schema with which you may be familiar from your own religion:

• Pick a sacred thing.
• Is it something you can eat?
  • If not, pick an edible thing that can stand in, symbolically, for the sacred thing.
• Say something about how the thing, or what it stands for, is sacred.
• Pass it around ( Read more... )