This is a heck of a bundle! As usual, the books are DRM-free and in this bundle are provided in PDF format, which is not my favorite as they're so much bigger than epub, but it is what it is ( Read more... )

Tomorrow there's a potluck at the solar observatory. I've made chili and chipotle shredded chicken tacos. And I'm going to be baking a lemon cake with chocolate fudge frosting. Russet is working, but I'll set some aside for her before I go ( Read more... )

It's not like I discovered it - I wish! I subscribe to Milk Street Magazine, Christopher Kimball's revenge for being unjustly turfed from America's Test Kitchen. I received a recipe in email recently that looked interesting, but it also included an article link about a "great substitute for buttermilk: kefir ( Read more... )

I used it tonight and was pleased with the result and had no problems using a non-stick skillet. Using medium to medium low heat, toasted the bottom until it was warm and you can see any droopy cheese bubbling, then add maybe a quarter to half teaspoon of water and cover the pan with a lid for about two minutes! The pan is hot enough that the ( Read more... )

Chocolate Eggnog Cookie from Seriouseats.com. Their recipe was very poorly re-written which lead me to make two mistakes, but both were recoverable and a fine cookie emerged. The second recipe was very sparse and also needed a re-write. Neither cookie delivered the amount of eggnog flavor that I was looking for, but I may have a solution. When ( Read more... )

But I was expecting it. I just finished the chocolate mousse, assembled the chocolate mousse/flourless chocolate cake pie and now it's in the fridge, setting ( Read more... )

I've been making a wonderful chocolate mousse pie for several years now, and I've been wanting to elevate the level of chocolate taste in it. The problem is that you can't just add more chocolate chips to it or you muck up the ratios and risk epic fail. The recipe uses 5 ounces of dark chocolate melted in a double broiler with a few ounces of ( Read more... )

I love Madelines. I used to always buy them at Trader Joe's in Phoenix, but they stopped carrying them. A woman there suggested I buy them in bulk at World Market, but I (A) don't want larger madelines, and (II) don't want them in bulk.

So I bought a gorgeous medeline pan from Williams-Sonoma. I found a great recipe from Food Network, and it ( Read more... )

I have three kitchen thermometers here. They're the kind that has the remote probe that you stick in whatever it is that you're monitoring. Two of them have no probes. I guess I kept them around to use as timers, which is stupid, because the stove and microwave have timers and I have my iPhone which can spawn as many timers as I can find ( Read more... )

I've always had problems with massive tearing while cutting onions. The most successful defense that I've found is to cut them next to a gas burner on high, the convection air current pulls in the escaped gas that causes tearing and incinerates it. But we have an electric range, so no can do. I've tried slightly freezing onions, and that ( Read more... )