February may have turned into April overnight (44F? Weather gods, what is going on??), but there’s still enough of a chill in the air to warrant baking muffins. Especially whole-grain muffins with a jammy surprise inside. I opted for locally made, naturally sweetened blackberry jam for this batch; next time I might go for raspberry [...]
Nothing adds an easy touch of elegance to holiday desserts like freshly whipped cream. (Skip the aerosol can!) Be sure to chill your beaters and bowl before whipping away, either by putting them in the fridge for a good 30 minutes or by popping them into the freezer for a quick 10. I like to [...]
A lot of things are better off made than bought. I’m talking simple things, like salad dressing (unrefined oil + vinegar/citrus juice) and fruit-flavored yogurt (plain full-fat yogurt + fresh fruit). And it isn’t just a matter of the end product tasting better or being a more nutritious choice — which it does and is [...]
I have a new favorite ingredient! (Although I’ll admit that as a recipe developer, I tend to have a new favorite ingredient every two weeks or so…) I’ve been using my Ingredient of the Month in everything from desserts to dinners to baked goods. What’s my latest culinary love? Goat’s-milk yogurt. It has that distinctive [...]
Continue reading about Trading the Moo! for a Baa! in Your Ice Cream
If I could wave a magic culinary wand and make one aisle in the grocery store disappear, I’d probably make the cereal aisle vanish. Even when you find a cereal that truly is whole-grain, unsweetened, and tastes as good as it is healthy, you’re going to be paying a lot more for store-bought cereal than [...]
I don’t know about you, but when I find an exciting new (to me) ingredient, I like to drop it into as many culinary settings as I can to see what happens. Some ideas, like my “let’s make hot chocolate with red wine instead of milk!” notion, though, are rather ill-fated. Random combinations are not [...]
Although I savor the occasional glass of grass-fed animal milk (raw if I can get it), I’m also a big fan of non-dairy milks. They’re a nice change of pace, for one thing, and there are endless varieties of them: rice, oat, hazelnut, hemp, almond…it seems like almost any nut, seed or grain can be [...]
Pomegranates may look like odd, misshapen grapefruits, but inside they contain dozens of crunchy, jewel-like seeds. The seeds are sweet and edible and can be used in everything from salads to poultry garnishes to desserts. The only hard part is freeing the seeds from the bitter pith. Here’s the easiest seed-removal method I’ve come across: [...]
