My friend Molly is both a regular friend and a foodie friend. We met in Portland after both of us had just moved back, and became fast friends. In addition to hanging out and doing things, we discovered we both love to cook. When we lived in the same city we would often get together to make dinner or bake. And it was Molly who first taught me to can.
Growing up, the only non-fish, non-seafood my family ate was poultry. We only ate it a couple times a month, and except for Thanksgiving it was never cooked in the house. When I was 15, I realized that poultry was just food to me and I didn’t actually enjoy it for itself, and I decided to stop eating it.
I’m not a huge fan of fake meat substitutes, and I don’t specifically seek them out. I’ve never eaten red meat and specialty gave up poultry, so I don’t want to eat something meant to mimic them, for me it defeats the point. As you can imagine, this has led me to seek an enjoyable substitute for a main course on Thanksgiving. After I moved to Texas, the first couple years that I prepared Thanksgiving I made tofu pot pies. I had not grown up eating pot pies, but after trying the commercial version from Amy’s, I really enjoyed it and wanted to make my own. The downside of eating this for Thanksgiving was that it didn’t leave me wanting all the sides that for me are integral part of the meal. Several years ago, I went in search of a recipe for baked tofu. I stumbled across this recipe, and while I really like it, I have needed to tweak it slightly over the years to streamline the recipe and make it more like the baked tofu I envisioned.
I first wrote about this tarte soleil four years ago in a post filled with notes but no actual recipe write-up. After all these years, this still as much a favorite as ever, and I decided it was time to properly post this recipe. I always make it for my friend Karen’s new years party, but I also make it any time I need a quick and delicious appetizer.
As has been mentioned on other posts, I find many recipes because I get an idea and I go searching online. In this case, I had some sunflower seed butter that I needed to use up and so I went looking for a basic peanut butter cookie recipe to adopt. After finding my recipe, I realized I needed to check Smitten Kitchen and stumbled on the Ovenly three-ingredient peanut butter cookie.
I made a test batch with real peanut butter, just a half recipe, and I really enjoyed it. However, the molasses flavor was so prevalent that I thought the cookie was too sweet and the peanut butter a little bit muted.
I got a call last week to make nice desserts, with two days’ notice. I quickly brainstormed some ideas, two of which I’d made before (lime bars, using my friend’s wonderful lemon bar recipe, and mini black bottom cupcakes) and a third which became this dessert.
I’ve made these Seven Layer Cookies many times before, which look so elegant. I was thinking of something that would be similar but a little less fussy, with a nut free cake and alternating sandwich layers of white chocolate and strawberry, to make it more spring/summery.
Continue reading “Strawberry White Chocolate Shortcake Cake”
As you could tell from the top photo in this post, I usually make both raspberry macaroons and chocolate macaroons for Passover. They have the same characteristics – easy to make, moist, and truly delicious.
These macaroons get their flavor from two sources of chocolate – cocoa powder and melted chocolate. The melted chocolate helps keep them moist, and the cocoa gives a good depth of flavor.
Many years ago, after I had moved to Texas and bought my house, I was hosting a dinner party and looking at recipes. I had decided to serve salmon as the main course, but didn’t know how I wanted to flavor it.
Growing up in Oregon, we ate salmon almost every week, usually for our Friday night Shabbat meal. My mother usually cooked it simply by poaching it in the oven. While I always enjoyed it (except for a couple of years in high school where I got sick of eating salmon every week), it was clear that most people were used to eating fish either seasoned in an interesting way before cooking or having it served with a sauce.
Like many Jewish kids, my family always had a can or two of macaroons during Passover. I certainly enjoyed them, and as an adult I continued to buy them in addition to the sweets I would make.
In 2012, I saw this recipe on Smitten Kitchen, and it totally transformed my thinking. It had never occurred to me a) how easy it is to make macaroons* and b) that I could make my own macaroons for Passover!
I don’t remember how I managed to stumble upon this recipe, easily five or six years ago. However, it instantly intrigued me – a naturally gluten free chocolate cookie made entirely with cocoa powder? Plus the addition of cinnamon and chili to give it a little complex flavor? Sign me up!
I make this quite often, it is a go-to any time I need a gluten free cookie. But it is also a huge favorite with gluten eaters, because all that cocoa powder packs a huge chocolate wallop without being too sweet.
Periodically during the year, the wonderful Cantor at my synagogue does a musical Shabbat service for Friday evening, featuring a full group of musicians and a musical theme. I usually volunteer to bake desserts for the evening; I like to challenge myself to bake desserts that, in some way, represent the theme.
