Baking

Herb and Apple Stuffing

February 18, 2016 by Charles 1 Comment

I wouldn’t consider myself a stuffing man. It’s not something I usually think to have or make with a meal. And I am definitely not bold enough to try putting the stuffing in any raw bird. That’s just not something I am willing to try.

But this past Thanksgiving (yes, this recipe is looong overdue) I was willing to try a stuffing recipe. And I am glad that I did. This recipe turned out great. It was absolutely delicious and the leftover stuffing was the first of the Thanksgiving leftovers to bite the dust.

We had actually tried to make cute stuffing muffins from this recipe, packing the mixed stuffing into buttered muffin tins. The stuffing cooked fine, but it did not hold together in a muffin shape. Instead, it quickly came apart the minute we removed it from the tins. In the end, it was probably for the best. I liked…

Chocolate-Chip Peppermint Cookies

February 5, 2016 by Charles 1 Comment

Candy canes are only so useful after the holidays have come and gone. What does one do with hundreds of mini candy canes, individually wrapped, sitting above one’s refrigerator?

Fortunately, the New Yorker has a number of suggestions. You could, for example, crush them up and use them to salt, er rather, mint your your driveway in advance of wintry weather. You could use them to pull clumps of hair out of your drain or drag struggling marionettes off stage. These are but a few of the New Yorker’s (somewhat) humorous suggestions.

Or, you could crush them up and make these cookies. I have tried, unsuccessfully, to make these in the past. Too often …

Butternut Squash Tart with Rosemary Crust

January 16, 2016 by Charles Leave a Comment

Picking a recipe is never easy. There are thousands of recipes on any given website and among any collection of cookbooks. And then, when cooking for a crowd, things get only more complicated, as more and more tastes, allergies, and preferences must be accounted for.

Among the vast collections of recipes, this one stood out almost immediately. I love a good homemade crust. Caitlin loves a good gourd. The addition of fresh rosemary (from our own herb garden out back) was an additional selling point. Beyond those considerations, …

Tres Leches Cake with Berries

August 15, 2015 by Charles 1 Comment

In my last post, I bemoaned the fact that I had not been trying out enough recipes from the Barefoot Contessa (a.k.a. Ina Garten). Well, sure enough, I am back in form, with a second Barefoot Contessa in less than a month’s time.

I had always wanted to make a tres leches cake, having always been eager to order the dessert at the Mexican restaurants we might frequent. I loved how moist and sweet the cake was.

And as luck would have it,…

Blueberry Bran Muffins

July 29, 2015 by Charles 2 Comments

How I have been remiss! It used to be that an Ina recipe landed on my blog almost every other month. There was her spanakopita and her cheese straws. There was her panko-crusted salmon with french lentils and her maple-roasted winter squash. Every dish, it seemed, was a winner.

And with six of her cookbooks sitting on my shelf, each neatly arranged according to the spine’s color, there was no shortage of recipes at my disposal. There were even two recent books — Make it Ahead and Foolproof: Recipes You Can Trust — that, horror of horrors, I had not yet acquired.

I was desperately falling behind on my Ina testing.

Fortunately, the St. Louis County Public Library …