Those of you who are familiar with me know I love to do photo tutorials. In fact it can be argued that I do too many of them. But I figure, if the petits fours-making process doesn’t qualify for photography, what does? So here’s a step-by-step for all you petits fours makers-to-be. We begin with […]
READ ONNow there are the makings of one fine fruitcake (actually two, I cut the recipe in half). You may notice there are cranberries in there. The reason for that is I couldn’t find any figs at Kroger yesterday afternoon. I could have gone somewhere else, but I’d already spent enough time in the supermarket. The […]
READ ONYou know you’ve got hold of a good, solid traditional fruitcake recipe when the ingredients list is as long as your arm. These recipes date back hundreds of years in America, but their pedigree goes back to at least the High Middle Ages, when European bakers emptied their pantries of every last good thing they […]
READ ONOf the countless fig-related threats and insults that military leaders have hurled at one another over the course of human history, there’s one that really stands out for me. It was spoken by Xerxes the First, emperor of Persia, in about 480 BC, and was directed at the Athenians. It goes like this: I shan’t […]
READ ONThe last selection in our sweet tomato serenade is an oldie but a goodie: tomato caramel sauce. When you think about it, tomato caramel is really just the logical extension of tomato jam, only the sugar is cooked to a higher temperature to create a complexity of flavor you wouldn’t otherwise get. What possible application […]
READ ONLeftover puff pastry is indeed a many-splendored thing, and another reason to never, ever throw anything with that much butter in it away. I keep a scrap ball in a sandwich bag in the freezer. It starts out the size of a walnut, and in a couple of months is usually about the size of […]
READ ONThe wife, being a chocoholic bar none, commented that I haven’t made any “real desserts” in a while, meaning of course that I haven’t done anything with chocolate. So, to entice you choco-fiends back into the fold, I think it’s time for an oldie but a goodie: crêpes with Nutella and bananas. But since I […]
READ ONActually the most you can say of any particular fat is that it’s “high” in saturated fatty acids, since every fat, whether solid fat or oil, contains a mix of saturated and unsaturated fatty acid molecules. It’s the proportion of those fatty acids that’s important. You can imagine a fatty acid molecule as a long, […]
READ ONWe just found out that the wife has another pastry in the oven, as it were. The poor girl gets terribly sick in her first trimester. In the brief moments when she’s able to eat, her sweet tooth comes out with a vengeance. This week’s projects come by her request. Here’s for the good times: […]
READ ONI have to say that the weekend’s drive over the Blue Ridge Mountains was spectacular. It rained quite a bit on the way home, but on the way out the endless vistas of tree-covered mountains rolling off into the distance like waves, well they were awe-inspiring. Being a history buff (in Virginia no less) I […]
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