This is one of my favorite kinds of cookies. This batch was made for the Boy Scout Christmas party from a recipe in the Richmond Times-Dispatch. It made 24 cookies, which spread more than I was expecting, but tasted very good. ¾ cups (1-1/2 sticks) butter 1 cup sugar, plus more for rolling Read More …
These meatballs in a spicy sauce were tasty with good bread, in this case Lepinja with Preferment . The recipe below is how I prepared them following a recipe from The Homesick Texan. 2 chipotles makes for a sauce which is probably too spicy for most people, although not for us. Also 1 tsp. of Read More …
This was a successful experiment to improve the Bosnian flatbread Lepinja by adding a preferment step, rather than making it as a straight dough. The process involved dividing the original recipe into two parts, a preferment part, made earlier to develop gluten and flavor complexity, and the remainder added at the normal time a few Read More …
This made an excellent Friday night dinner for company, with chicken breasts providing an economical alternative to the traditional veal. (Turkey cutlets would also work well here.) This recipe, which is an adaptation from Serious Eats, includes the trick of adding gelatin to the liquids to give the sauce a better mouthfeel. 1-1/4 Read More …
This classic was one of the two ways we used up the leftover turkey from this year’s Thanksgiving. This recipe is an adaptation from a recipe on Epicurious.com. 10 oz. mushrooms, sliced 5 Tbs. butter, divided ¼ cup all purpose flour 1-3/4 cups milk 2 cups chicken or turkey stock ¼ cup dry white Read More …
Focaccias are lightly topped Italian flatbreads which I generally make with the same dough I usually use for pizza. It should be very light and airy with the flavor of the bread shining through, and with the topping just as an accent. This posting is about the focaccia I made last night to go with Read More …
In Olia Hercules’ Mamushka: A Cookbook on Ukrainian and Eastern European cooking, there is a very enticing set of photographs and recipe for a large spiral filled with feta cheese. I have now made this twice, and have basically figured out what to do. When done right, the result is a flaky filled bread, like Read More …
I made this classic taco using my homemade chorizo ( Mexican Chorizo ). This recipe, which is adapted from Serious Eats, includes a couple of tricks to get the potato crispy (but not burned) on the outside and cooked on the inside (which can be a difficult combination). These tricks include parboiling the potato in Read More …
I like Mexican chorizo, but if you look at the package and see what is in the typical product (pork salivary glands, etc.) that puts me off a bit. Also, a lot of the commercial product is very fatty. So for both of these reasons, plus because it is fun and easy, I like Read More …
This is how we made the gravy in advance for the clan at Thanksgiving. Since I was going to be roasting turkeys in La Caja China, there would not be any drippings for use in the gravy, so we made it all in advance to reduce the stress of the big day. This was easy Read More …