While I’m looking forward to the spring flowers that our April showers will bring, I’m still in full-on winter mode in terms of wanting hot beverages. How can your mind not edge towards hot chocolate when it’s gray, cold, and wet outside? Twenty degrees Fahrenheit and sunny seems warmer than 45F and raining. So in the [...]
Continue reading about An Antidote for Rainy, Cold Spring Days
Ever since I went to Spain last year, I’ve started to enjoy the occasional cup of coffee. Turns out the reason I didn’t like coffee before going to Spain was that I had only had bitter, instant-style American coffee. Freshly roasted and ground beans taste entirely different — mellow, almost sweet, and needing only a [...]
If I say, “Name a nut!” you probably won’t say “Chestnuts!” I don’t think of them much, either — when I think “nuts,” I think of walnuts and pecans and pistachios and macadamias and peanuts and pretty much every other kind of nut except chestnuts. I’d probably think of Brazil nuts before chestnuts. But lately [...]
Since so many people are trying to cut down on sugar nowadays (great idea!), I’ve been playing with stevia lately. Not the “raw” white powder — which I’m not a fan of since it’s more than 50% dextrose/cheap corn sugar by weight — but stevia in its more natural forms, from fresh leaves to dried [...]
I’ve written about crème fraîche in the past — it’s far too lovely not to write about! — but usually within the context of serving a dollop of the velvety cultured cream with fruit or using it with savory dishes the same way you’d use sour cream. (In effect, crème fraîche is a VERY-MUCH upgraded, European [...]
Continue reading about Turning Milkshakes into Health Food, One Glass at a Time
The days may be getting a little bit cooler, but that’s no excuse not to enjoy ice cream! Especially ice cream made with corn and basil, two crops that are just as happy in fall as they are in the summer months. Plus, I’ve sweetened this batch of ice cream with local honey and enriched [...]
Continue reading about Corn and Basil United in Sweet, Frozen Harmony
Ounce for ounce, we spend a LOT more on beverages than we do on food. And I’m not even talking about alcoholic beverages. I’m talking about bottled water, bottled tea, bottled juice, pop, kombucha…all of it. While I like to splurge on fizzy mineral water once in a while — as much as I wish [...]
Continue reading about Enriching Your Wallet and Your Health
Whole-grain baked goods are, by nature, drier than baked goods made with refined flour. Sometimes this is a good thing — biscotti and crackers are supposed to be crunchy and dry, meant to be dunked into coffee or spread with savory soft cheese — but usually you want baked goods to be moist and perhaps [...]
It’s hotter than heck again today, so I thought I’d whip up a batch of “instant” ice cream to beat the heat. You could think of it as a milkshake latte — adding several ice cubes gives you a frothy drink that you can either swirl smooth with a spoon or let sit for a [...]
Remember the fun flavors of ice cream you enjoyed as a kid? There was Superman ice cream, bubblegum ice cream, tutti frutti ice cream … and then there was the more adult-oriented Neapolitan ice cream. I say “adult-oriented” because the flavors themselves weren’t odd despite the fact that the ice cream was striped and multi-colored. [...]
Continue reading about Going Greek in a Neopolitan Kind of Way
