Today's recipe isn't one I dreamt up, but it's dreamy for sure. Amy Chaplin's gorgeous book, At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen: Celebrating the Art of Eating Well, has been a favorite of mine for years now, and this recipe was one of the first ones I made from it. And now that we're finally getting some real fall weather and I woke up to 40-degree temps outside, warm, cinnamon-y pumpkin bread just seems fitting. read more[...]
Eggs in tomato sauce. It's the prefect clean-out-the-fridge breakfast, and it's fast enough for a weekend or weekday. You can make your own sauce using the recipe below, store-bought tomato sauce, or leftovers from that spaghetti you had two nights ago. It comes together in a flash, and it's always delicious. That garlicky toast is a must for mopping up runny egg yolks and any lingering sauce. The key is to poach the eggs until the whites are just set and the yolks are still runny. Keep a close eye on them during the cooking process to achieve this balance.&n[...]
Homemade bread is a special thing. It's a labor of love: a multi-step process that requires some hands-on work, but the finished product is delicious and loved by all. I've been baking bread since college but I'm a little out of practice these days, and the great thing about bread is that it doesn't care. It doesn't matter if your crumb isn't quite right, if your loaf turned out a little flat, or if you didn't get the big, airy holes you were hoping for. It always tastes good. For this reason, bread baking is something that becomes a hobby for some. Y[...]
It's time for Recipe Redux again! This month's theme is "Grab a Book and Cook," and participating bloggers were instructed to grab the nearest cookbook and cook the recipe on page 42 or 142 in honor of the 42nd month of Recipe Redux challenges. I recently picked up Amy Chaplin's At Home in the Whole Food Kitchen: it's thoughtful, beautifully photographed, and the recipes are delicious. I'm always drawn to the introductory sections of cookbooks when the author invites the reader into their kitchen to engage in the rituals of shopping for ingredients, exploring esse[...]
One summer in college, I decided to try to master the whole wheat loaf of bread. Those of you with baking experience know what a pain whole wheat flour can be to work with, and there I was, having baked very few loaves of bread in my life, determined to figure out the secret to beautifully risen, free-form artisan boules without white flour. I tried many, many recipes many, many times, and most of my bread ended up looking like a mess. At least the end product of a failed-looking baking attempt still tastes good, and eventually, I did master whole whea[...]