For me, chocolate is a lot like Ben Affleck – it’s best in a supporting role.
Chocolate-chip cookies, chocolate croissants, and chocolate-chip blondies are definite draws. Think Good Will Hunting, School Ties, and Mallrats. But put chocolate in a starring role – chocolate cake, chocolate truffles, or chocolate pudding – and you have a Gigli or Daredevil in the making.
By my standards, these pancakes are well cast. The chocolate chips meld into the oatmeal-buttermilk batter, giving a subtle performance, but one that adds to the overall production. They don’t steal the scene, but rather, focus it.
We all know chocolate as a dessert, but it’s a role it often plays, and usually overplays. But after making these pancakes, Keep reading →
Categories: Breakfast
Tagged: Brunch, Chocolate, Griddle, Oatmeal, Pancakes
When it comes to potatoes, repetition is key.
For the best french fries, it’s essential to double-fry them. It should be no surprise then, that the best baked potatoes, should be twice baked.
On Superbowl Sunday, I invited my friends over to watch the Saints defeat the Colts. I told them to bring their wives and girlfriends, but also to bring their appetites. Given my New Orleans roots, I knew Keep reading →
Categories: Appetizers
Tagged: Baking, Cheddar, Comfort Food, Favorites, Potatoes
Some days you feel like a home-cooked meal. But most often, that time is after a long day at work, when you least feel like spending the remaining hours of the evening waiting in a checkout line.
That was me the other day.
Walking to my car, lips chapped and cheeks red, I just wanted to head home, where I could kick my feet up and turn on the television. I was in no mood to bundle up, break out a grocery list, and trudge through the aisles. After all, Jon Stewart and a warm apartment were waiting.
So when I got home, I flipped on the DVR, and checked Keep reading →
Categories: Entrees · Soup
Tagged: Beans, Lentil, Pasta, Penne, Sauteing, Vegetarian
Hello, all – it’s Caitlin here!
Charles has graciously ceded the wheel to me for today’s posting, thus giving me the opportunity to discuss one of my favorite dietary topics: fiber. I’ll preface this discussion by saying that Charles eats a very healthful diet, with oatmeal, sweet potatoes, and bananas ranking among his favorites.
Yet, when I suggested that he swap his white bread for a whole grain alternative (more fiber!), he balked at the suggestion and characterized my beloved wheat bread as “cardboard” (blasphemy!). Despite these accusations, Keep reading →
Categories: Sides
Tagged: Garlic, Roasting, Vegetables
When I read the instructions for preparing orzo, I was a little taken aback.
Orzo is sometimes referred to as “Italian rice.” And rice, I know, absorbs the liquid it’s cooked in. So, when the instructions called for 2 quarts of water to cook 1 cup of orzo, I was a little confused. With a water to orzo ratio of 8:1, thoughts of football-size orzo grains popped into my head.
Fortunately, I read the rest of the directions, and noticed Keep reading →
Categories: Entrees
Tagged: Broiling, Feta, Fish, Orzo, Pasta, Quick and Easy, Salmon, Tomato
Coffeecake may be a bit of a misnomer, but I’m not complaining. Coffeecake is one of the ultimate comfort desserts or snacks, a perfect combination of cinnamon and moist cake to accompany a hot coffee or chai tea latte (in my case) , on a cold wintry morning. Indeed, this coffeecake comes together so quickly and effortlessly, it might be ready in the time it takes Keep reading →
Categories: Desserts
Tagged: Baking, Cinnamon, Comfort Food, Quick and Easy
Despite its relative utility, chemistry never held much sway. Instead of chemical compounds and balanced equations, I preferred studying the subjunctive tense for être and avoir, or drawing the shape of parabolic curves, or studying the machinations of medieval European princes. Even looking at plant cells seemed more interesting than mixing chemicals.
Admittedly, some of my classmates saw things differently. Walk into a French, Algebra, or History classroom, and the setting is sedate and similar: rows of desks, facing a blackboard. Walk into a chemistry classroom, and the mood is one of potential and excitement: Bunsen burners, microscopes, lab coats, test tubes, fire extinguishers, and an emergency chemical-bath. As one of the Chemistry teachers liked to boast, “You can’t die in English class.”
And yet, all I could muster up was a stifled yawn. Chemistry Keep reading →
Categories: Breads
Tagged: Baking, Chemistry of Cooking, Comfort Food, Corn, Honey, Sour Cream, Southern
Memories are a funny thing. I look back at certain events or times, and wonder what it was that made a certain scene memorable, that gave it such staying power.
With childhood memories, the question evokes a stronger response – owing, perhaps, to the idea that a memory resonates with more emotion the more distant it seems. There’s something inspiring and captivating about looking back in your subconscious and finding a picture of yourself at a younger, more exciting age.
There I am, 20 years old, turning a corner outside of a Paris cafe, and bumping into the Prime Minister. There I am, 18 years old, sweating under the bright lights of my high-school Keep reading →
Categories: Entrees
Tagged: Comfort Food, Favorites, New Orleans, Red Beans, Sauteing, Southern, Tabasco, Turkey
Making the perfect pot of rice is no easy task. In my first few attempts, it boiled over, came out gummy, and stuck to the bottom: the trifecta of bad rice. But with some practice, and a few google searches, I came to perfect my rice.
Rice is finicky, like a set of rabbit ears on an old television. The more you handle the rice, the worse it turns out. With rice, delicacy is the watchword. Like those thin metal rods, you need to place the pot of rice in the right place, and then leave it alone, trusting it to work as it should.
In practice, this means Keep reading →
Categories: Sides
Tagged: Rice, Steaming
When it’s not ripping and breaking, or tearing and fraying, phyllo dough can be quite a treat.
Phyllo dough is paper-thin sheets of raw, unleavened flour dough, most typically found in Mediterranean cuisine. Indeed, the dough is most often associated with spanakopita and baklava – but little else. Which is perhaps why one of the leading producers of the dough has a running contest involving phyllo.
Always a sucker for a good recipe contest, Keep reading →
Categories: Appetizers
Tagged: Mediterranean, Phyllo Dough, Southern, Sweet Potato
