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 [...]
Who doesn’t like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup? Peanut butter and chocolate just go together. But I guarantee that once you make your own PB&C in solid form or smoothie/shake form, you won’t ever want to go back to the prepackaged kind. The homemade variety tastes better, it’s a whole lot better for your health, [...]
The best kind of fruit is the kind that yields all of itself to the cook: flesh, skin, and seeds. If it can be used in savory or sweet settings, so much the better!
Enter the papaya, a fruit that can be sliced, sautéed, and served as a vegetable when green. You can scoop out the [...]
What started out as a basic chocolate cake became much more fragrant and flavorful with the simple switcheroo of unrefined peanut oil for butter. Using maple syrup instead of sugar intensifies both the chocolate and the peanut, and you can add your choice of spice to provide a different dimension of flavor. In the end, [...]
There’s a time for crusts and ends and corners, but that time isn’t all the time. Sometimes you just want what’s in the middle without having to bother with anything else. If you’re a big pumpkin fan like I am, you might prefer no-holds-barred, maximum pumpkin, especially at this time of the year when it’s [...]
There are plenty of non-dairy creamers out there: hazelnut, French vanilla, Irish creme, extra-rich…the list goes on and on. (Literally. Take a look at the ingredients sometime.) All of those flavors do, however, have something in common — they’re usually accompanied by hydrogenated oil and high-fructose corn syrup, two of the worst substances you can [...]
…Sssshh!… I have a secret ingredient in my cupboards that I’ve started to use in unexpected places. It’s something I stumbled upon when reading a Mediterranean cookbook and then again in one featuring Middle Eastern cuisine. Seeing the ingredient twice in a row made me curious, and finding it at a local market the [...]
You may have tasted currant jam or jelly, but have you tried fresh currants? They come in a variety of tastes and colors: black, red, white (really more of a golden hue), and pink. The black ones are the most common and has a very distinctive flavor–they remind me of a woodsy, almost-creamy blend of [...]
Who would have thought that two ingredients could be so heavenly? Maybe it’s because dates and coconuts are both fruits of palm trees. This dessert takes about 30 seconds to prepare and is the perfect blend of sweet and chewy. Just rinse the dates, dip them in egg whites, and roll them in unsweetened coconut [...]
A pavlova is a baked meringue shell topped with fruit or sauce. (And yes, it’s named after a Russian ballerina.) Pavlovas are very simple to make, yet never fail to impress. I topped this one with a kiwi pureé, diced mangoes, and pomegranate seeds. It’s a flavorful, visually-stunning dessert…and it’s fat-free! [...]
