Adapted from BH&G Baking
Mix 1 cup of flour, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 tsp baking powder, and 1 T white sugar in a bowl. Make a dry ingredients volcano. In a separate bowl, whisk 1 cup milk, 1 large egg, 2 T veg oil (or melted butter, or La Macchia!!!), and a decent glug of vanilla extract. Gently mix wet ingredients into dry ingredients (overmixing makes tough pancakes). Add a handful of berries, nuts, dried fruit, chocolate chips, or nothing at all. Melt butter in a pan over medium heat. Griddle... Read full post

Make 4 burger sized crab cakes.
 
14 saltine crackers
1 pound lump crab meat
1/2 a green pepper, finely diced
2 tbl. melted butter
1 large egg yolk
1 tbl. dijon mustard
2 tsp. hot sauce
1 tsp. Old Bay
lemon to garnish
 
1.  Process crackers into crumbs.
2.  Mix everything together with your hands.
3.  Form crab cakes.
4.  Bake at 350 about 30 minutes on parchment.
 
*When I make a double batch I will mix 1 pound lump crab meat with 1 pound... Read full post

I found this recipe from my favorite Cook's Country magazine, but I made a couple modifications.  Magazine says this makes about 4 dozen, but I ended up with about 80 of them.
 
1 1/2 oz. white chocolate (I like Baker's chocolate)
2 3/4 c. creamy peanut butter (don't use natural, I used Skippy)
4 tbl. softened butter (recipe calls for unsalted, but I used salted and it came out fine)
3 c. powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/8 tsp. salt
2 c. milk or semi-sweet chocolate for dipping... Read full post

I made lasagna last night, totally homemade and with only a few slight disasters.  Yes, it did take 4+ hours, just like in Italy.  I start with the chicken stock at 5pm, no fresh parsley, bay or thyme, so I use the dry stuff.  That turns out just fine.  I start the soffritto with just the vegetables, forgot to put the herbs in so I add that in after it's already golden brown.  I add ground turkey and brown it.  I add my hand squished tomatoes to that.  Oh, I... Read full post

My mother used to start making slow cooked ribs at about 6pm every Halloween. Other kids were dancing down the street at the crack of dusk and we were sitting at the table sweating under lion and hobo suits, waiting for the ribs to be done.“Don’t worry Mom, we don’t need to eat.”“Yes you do.”“We don’t care if they’re cooked. We’ll just chew them really well. Please, Mom. We love chewy meat.”The bell at this point was ringing like... Read full post

Some things just can’t be improved on. This is the only chili for me; I posted it way back when:
December 16, 2006
The Best Chili I ever made (or how to make the people happy)
I ‘m going to give you a chili recipe for your Saturday night crowd to beat the band and make whomever happens to walk in your door tonight and ask for a beer or dinner happier than they have been with just any old chili for a long, long time. I know what I say about not worrying about what other people... Read full post

Recipe: lasagna, word for word
Filed under: Food — fayehess @ 4:20 am Edit This
Lasagna

Lasagna starts with a meat sauce, gently cooked for a few hours, and if you get this part right, it’s hard to go wrong. Layered with a white sauce, grated Parmesan (try to find Parmigiana Reggiano) and a good noodle, it is up there with the best of baked pastas. Lasagna can be refrigerated or frozen; follow the directions to the end, and bake the day of, or stick it in the freezer before baking it, and... Read full post

It,s always a question, how thin to roll out the pasta for the lasagna. I like it one setting away from the last option–but how can you not try to go for see through? We did both and had loads of noodles still hanging on the chairs after the lasagna went into the oven. Thing is, if you make your sauce with a Tuscan soffritto that takes half an hour, another twenty mintues to brown the beef, another twenty to ladle by ladle add the chicken stock u made that morning, and the Chianti from the... Read full post

Same old song over and over. Me and a glass of water 1 o’clock in the morning my head on the table because I can’t sleep. It never gets easier leaving my boy. And two hours before that–two hours of trying to get him to go to sleep, dinner of warm hard boiled eggs, string beans with a drizzle of olive oil and salt, his favorite mashed potatoes, a shower, reading his new favorite book, rubbing his back, promising him school’s going to be okay and I’ll be back in just... Read full post

I spend a majority of my life looking for things I have lost.Hair clip, patience, phone number, social security card, a skirt, notes, language..Ferdinand lost the leg of his 1 inch lego skeleton twice today and the mirror that the Sherlock version of the same height/weight carries. 15 minutes. Couldn’t find my yellow mixing bowl. 5 minutes active looking, 10 minutes thinking about it at breakfast. Where does a mixing bowl go?I could use ropes to tie it all to me.Or let it go.A few years... Read full post