Pink of Perfection

As soon as I saw the page titled “How to Fry” in my Grand Diplôme books, I knew this lesson would really just be an excuse to make beignets. Ever since I sat in the French Quarter late one Friday night in March, my black dress dusted with tell-tale powdered sugar, I’ve collected recipes for these airy pillows of dough. But frying isn’t a cooking technique that gets much play in my repertoire. And so the recipes sat in my delicious account gathering internet dust. That is, they languished there until Super Bowl Sunday, when suddenly I had the gumption and urge to make these. My bravery fueled by coffee, I put on my apron and dug in the cabinets for the splatter guard.

This recipe makes a lot of beignets. As in, you will certainly be tired of flipping dough balls in oil before the dough is all gone. But you should soldier on, cause who wants to waste 7 cups of bread flour? These would be great to make at a brunch party where you could hand off the frying job. What I learned about frying is that it takes no real skill. It’s just a matter of keeping a close eye out for a deepening golden color, and then flipping.

Because I’m not a regular fryer, I didn’t have a thermometer to hang on the side of the pan. This proved to be no big deal and please don’t let it stop you from trying these. I remembered the advice of a Southern friend and kept the gas at medium or medium-low. I decided the oil was hot enough to start frying when a flick of flour sizzled when it hit the surface. I didn’t crowd the pan, and if things seemed like they were getting too intensely sizzly, I dropped the heat a touch more.

All I have to say is, thank heavens for book club. If I hadn’t been able to send six women home with a grease-stained paper lunch sacks filled with these powdered sugar stomach bombs, I don’t know what might have happened. Frankly, I might not be here today.

Continue reading “How To Fry: French Quarter-Style Beignets” »

a fresh start in the new year

image via j_bary

the snow on the windowsills

Season 1 of The Wire

Kandinsky at the Guggenheim

trying out the best $2 tacos in Brooklyn

bath salts at home with that amazing “I’m at a spa” smell

baked oatmeal for cold mornings

image via alicepopkorn

guided meditations at meditation oasis

and you, my pretties?

Allow me to introduce you to a new very special someone in my life…

To answer your unasked but anticipated questions: yes, it is as wonderful as they say; yes, it is absolutely the heaviest item in our entire household; yes, I feel rather lucky and pretty spoiled to be the recipient of this thing. But guilt aside, having this mixer on my counter feels like crossing a sort of threshold. I think I have just entered the realm of Fancy Baker Type. More importantly, if I ever needed a push to whip up more cookies and cakes (I didn’t), this is it. I’m positively chomping at the bit to feed people desserts.

Which is why last weekend you could find me in the eye of a floury storm. First up was banana bread. Now, I know people have staunchly held beliefs about what they want from their banana bread, and I wouldn’t dare to call this the best banana bread. But in terms of what I’m looking for — a tender crumb but not cakey, a pronounced banana flavor without other distractions, and a relatively healthy composition — this is it.

I served this to a highly discerning friend (the type who can actually identify notes of cassis and butter in the wine you serve her) on an overcast Saturday afternoon. She came over wearing a plaid shirt and suede boots, tucked her legs under her on the couch, and declared this banana bread delicious. That out of the way, we poured the tea, and the real talk could commence.

Continue reading “My Best Banana Bread” »

You bought a quart of buttermilk for one recipe and now you’re wondering what to do with the rest? So been there. Allow me to introduce the Ultimate Buttermilk Recipe Repository! I scoured the web for the best-looking recipes that call for a bit of buttermilk, giving us plenty of opportunities to use up what’s still left in the fridge.

Breakfast

• Wheat Germ Scones with Dried Fruit and Nuts
• Buttermilk Banana Bread
• Pumpkin Pecan Muffins
• Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes
• Buttermilk Bran Muffins
• Buttermilk Oatmeal Muffins
• Pumpkin Walnut Flapjacks
• Strawberry Buckwheat Muffins

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You know when you’re hungry, and nothing sounds good, and you’re just trying to throw something together before you faint? You are motivated solely by hunger and struggling with one of those passing phases of what-to-cook ennui when, shockingly, you create something quite good. That is this quiche.

This “quiche” is a weeknight pinch-hitting blank canvas that can work with whatever ingredients you have; if you have eggs and milk in your fridge you can make this or a version of it. Someone who will remain unnamed said it reminded him of his bachelor days and a dish he used to whip up for the ladies called Impossible Quiche. But let’s not go there.

For me, our ingredients were portobello mushrooms, frozen spinach, and an onion. I found a knob of cheese in a drawer and grated a bit of that to scatter on top. But the rules here are practically non-existent: you could try bacon, ham, bits of leftover roast chicken; asparagus, frozen broccoli, peppers, leeks. Like a little black dress, this quiche can be dressed up or down, and best of all, it will go with pretty much whatever you have in your closet. I mean, fridge.

Continue reading “$5 Dinner (or less): Crustless Quiche” »

My first attempt at making yogurt fell somewhere in the middle realm — not an epic fail of soured milk, but not thick and creamy either. (At least it was more successful that my attempt with homemade peanut butter, which came out more like peanut paste.) My yogurt was a little on the runny side but had the most amazing sour tanginess. With maple syrup, a chopped peach, and my mom’s granola, I was in breakfast heaven.

There are more detail oriented recipes for homemade yogurt, but the lazy way seemed to work just fine for me. If you don’t have a thermometer, don’t fret — all is not lost. I used the “thermos method” which involves simply pouring the ingredients into a thermos rinsed with hot water. If you have a yogurt maker, you’re obviously in business, but you can also make yogurt by placing it in a warmed oven overnight — instructions here. For having totally winged it (couldn’t find a thermometer), I thought this turned out admirably well and was a cheap way to make a lot of organic, low-fat yogurt.

Have you ever done this? Would you ever do this? Are you not into kitchen science experiments? Or does this seem like the kind of simple DIY project that’s right up your alley?

Continue reading “The Winging It Way to Homemade Yogurt” »

The first time was on a sunny, Saturday morning, sitting on a green window seat cushioned with tapestry-covered pillows. The restaurant was at the crossroads of two meandering county highways. The floors creaked. I had an omelet filled with pesto and heirloom tomatoes, but it was the strawberry jam that really had me. I spooned it out of the glass jar and spread it thick on my sourdough toast. It was so sweet, a salve to wounds of other disappointments I had that morning, a bright spot in a teary breakfast.

The next time was the following Saturday, and by then I had a taste and was happier. After browsing a used book store, we settled in to a little table set next to the wall in a little bistro. The walls were painted a pale yellow the overhead fan were whirring wildly, and I feasted on toasted baguette with strawberry jam. For the cool air on a sticky day and the sweet jam, I was in heaven.

The big surprise here is that I always thought of myself as a bigger fan of the orange preserves: marmalade, apricot, peach. But sometimes just what you need presents itself to you, like discovering a cookbook author with the kind of frank, witty voice that makes you swoon, or a glass pot of strawberry jam, ready to sweeten your morning.

Continue reading “Quick Strawberry Jam” »

Are you a sweet or savory breakfast person? My default setting is definitely savory, and I’m much more apt to order a farmer’s omelet than the French toast. But sometimes, after weeks of diurnal eggs, I get a hankering for something with a taste of sugar.

These healthy muffins have the tenderest crumb, which I think is the doing of the buckwheat, and the slices of soft strawberry tucked here and there are an explosion of juicy, wholesome sweetness in your mouth. I brought two to a friend in the coffee shop this morning and stowed a bunch in the freezer to be pulled out for a quick breakfast in the hot summer mornings to come.

Continue reading “Strawberry Buckwheat Muffins” »