Originally published at BlackTabi Blog. You can comment here or there.

One of the things many of the chefs talked about at Alex’s graduation was how being a chef meant committing to a lifestyle where you miss a lot of family holidays - while everyone else is rubbing the sleep out of their eyes and greeting Santa’s gifts on Christmas morning, chefs ( Read more... )

Originally published at BlackTabi Blog. You can comment here or there.

Most of the holiday cookies I know are tastier than they are pretty.  To me, they look cheerful because they scream “holiday”, but I’ve always had a place in my heart for beautifully decorated sugar cookies. This year I decided that I wanted to try my hand at making a batch of ( Read more... )

Originally published at BlackTabi Blog. You can comment here or there.

Recently, I remembered a cookie my mom had made once or twice when I was younger, but it wasn’t an annual tradition or anything like that.  They were tiny, crunchy, and a little bit spicy.  When I set out to make cookies this year, I thought I might give these a try because I ( Read more... )

Originally published at BlackTabi Blog. You can comment here or there.

According to Wikipedia, spritz is actually short for spritzgebäck.  I’ve never known them by any name other than spritz, but I’m willing to take their word for it.  The article goes on to mention that spritz are traditionally made in Germany during the Christmas season, when ( Read more... )

Originally published at BlackTabi Blog. You can comment here or there.

I’ve always really enjoyed toffee when it shows up on party buffets and in other people’s Christmas baking repertoires, but for some reason it had never occurred to me to make my own.  When I saw the recipe for Coffee Toffee on one of the blogs I read frequently, I could resist ( Read more... )

Originally published at BlackTabi Blog. You can comment here or there.

This is a tried-and-true recipe procured from  my mom that is definitely a family tradition.  One whiff of the bourbon and cocoa combination when I was mixing these together, and I thought to myself, “Ahhh, now it smells like Christmas!”


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Originally published at BlackTabi Blog. You can comment here or there.

Welcome to my week of Christmas cookies. We’ve been baking up a storm over the past several days, preparing for the holidays and festivities.  I chose seven different kinds of cookies (and candies) to make this year, and thought it would be fun to showcase all the recipes - some ( Read more... )

Originally published at BlackTabi Blog. You can comment here or there.

Given several weeks of having an extra cucumber or two around, I’ve decided to try my hand at pickle making this week.  I love pickles, and anything else with that salty, briney tang, and I can’t wait to taste these!  Rather than go to the effort to make hot process canned ( Read more... )

Originally published at BlackTabi Blog. You can comment here or there.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love pretzels!  I made another large batch of pretzels this weekend to bring into the office today.


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Originally published at BlackTabi Blog. You can comment here or there.

We’re munching through our produce. So far we’ve used: 1 zucchini, 3 bananas, 1/2 broccoli, 1/3 lettuce, all the spinach, 1 avocado, 1 pear, 1 tomato and 1 apple.

Sheila says that blogging about what vegetables we’ve eaten makes it look like our life is not terribly exciting. ( Read more... )