Archive for the 'baking' Category
Cooking with Ben
March 11th, 2010by Caroline
I love Pete Wells’ Cooking with Dexter column, and this week’s installment spoke to me particularly. Wells, apparently, is a perfectionist, and his occasional cooking missteps make him storm and stomp – unless his five year-old son is around. Then, because like any parent Wells likes to model more constructive behavior, he checks his [...]
Sunion Tart
March 4th, 2010by Lisa
Be warned: This is delicious, but not fast. It’s fun, but time consuming. It’s really pretty, but a major commitment of energy. Also, the kids might not eat it. Still.
A few weeks ago, Finn and I went to Chabot Space and Science Center for a kid’s science class about the sun. It was full [...]
Homemade Marshmallows
February 19th, 2010by Lisa
The Valentine’s Day lollipops were a disaster. Two recipes, three flavors, three batches, nearly 150 suckers later, and not a single one came out right. They were pretty, but not so tasty, and didn’t harden. They’re not a good activity for kids because well, candy is really hot.
So, on February 13 we were stuck. [...]
Classic Oatmeal Cookies
February 9th, 2010by Caroline
There is nothing remarkable about this cookie recipe except, perhaps, that I have been following it faithfully for over 35 years, and if you read this blog periodically or know me at all, you know that I am always tweaking recipes for baked goods. But why mess with a classic? This is the recipe [...]
Pear Bread
February 7th, 2010by Caroline
The other day I saw a bus ad quoting Ralph Waldo Emerson’s line, “There are only ten minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.” I was so surprised to see Emerson’s words on the side of a bus that it took a while before I stopped to think [...]
Thunder Cake
January 27th, 2010By Lisa
I now know what LEGO has to do with cake making, and, perhaps why so many pastry chefs are men.
It started with the rain.
It’s been raining here, for days on end. This has not, generally speaking been a bad thing. The kids like a good fire. I appreciate the down time. We really, really [...]
Weekend Waffles
January 18th, 2010by Lisa
birthday flowers, whipped cream, maple syrup, blueberries…
Generally speaking, I’m not in charge of breakfast, and I prefer pancakes to waffles. This is not so true of my husband, who loves waffles, and who counted a waffle maker among the very few kitchen machines in his bachelor home. He made waffles pretty regularly (from [...]
A Good Way to Start the Week
January 11th, 2010I will stop with all the cookie recipes soon, I promise, and get on to other topics, but I couldn’t resist writing about this one which I first spotted on my friend (and Mama, PhD contributor) Sheila’s blog: Flourless Peanut Butter Cookies.
Now, normally I am a big fan of flour in baked goods. You can [...]
Homemade English Muffins
January 4th, 2010by Lisa
I don’t bake nearly as frequently nor with as much passion as Caroline or finesse as my husband, but I do go on baking sprees, and this holiday vacation was no exception. Inspired by discovering my family’s love of English Muffins, and a few great blog posts, I decided to bake my own.
For one [...]
Hickory Puffs
December 30th, 2009My dad and sons added a new cookie to their repertoire this year, one I grew up with thanks to the nut-gathering efforts of my dad: hickory puffs. Now, most Californians don’t know about hickory nuts; the trees grow in New England and Wisconsin, and the nut shells are so hard and the nutmeat so [...]